PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 
IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 


BY 


FRANK  MITCHELL  LEAVITT 

ASSOCIATE  PROFESSOR  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 

AND 

EDITH   BROWN 

INSTRUCTOR  IN  PREVOCATIONAL  DEPARTMENT 

ALBERT  Q.  LANE  TECHNICAL  HIGH  SCHOOL 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN   COMPANY 
BOSTON    NEW  YORK    CHICAGO 

Gtfy  Iftfoztfibt  pre&*  Cambridge 


COPYRIGHT,    1915,   BY   FRANK   M.   LRAVITT   AND  EDITH   BROWN 
ALL    RIGHTS   RESERVED 


ttbt  fctbf rsibr  flrr s« 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   S   .   A 


PREFACE 

During  the  past  five  years  considerable  interest  has 
been  developed  in  the  problem  of  securing  a  better  ad- 
justment of  our  educational  methods  and  ideals  to  the 
needs  of  those  who,  though  they  form  the  vast  majority 
of  our  children,  are,  for  one  reason  or  another,  deriving 
the  least  benefit  from  the  present  school  system,  and 
are  leaving  its  care  altogether  before  reaching  the  age 
of  sixteen  or  seventeen  years. 

Such  school  systems  as  have  done  experimental  work 
looking  to  the  solution  of  this  problem  are  constantly 
receiving  requests  for  information  relating  to  the  pur- 
pose of  the  work,  the  methods  which  are  being  em- 
ployed, and  the  results  realized  or  expected. 

It  is  believed  that  school  administrators  and  school- 
teachers in  general  will  find  something  of  interest  and 
value  in  the  information  presented  in  this  volume  re- 
garding one  important  branch  of  this  experimental 
work,  namely  pre  vocational  education. 

For  the  purpose  of  collecting  and  of  organizing  such 
information  the  University  of  Chicago  has  conducted, 
during  the  past  three  years,  an  experimental  industrial 
class.  Instruction  both  in  shopwork  and  in  the  book 
subjects  has  been  given  very  largely  by  graduate  stu- 
dents in  the  Department  of  Education,  mature  men 
and  women  sincerely  interested  in  the  larger  aspects 
of  the  problem  presented. 

The  Albert  G.  Lane  Technical  High  School  of  Chicago 
includes  among  its  many  departments  one  of  special 

331220 


iv  PREFACE 

interest,  consisting  of  so-called  prevocational  classes 
and  providing  for  over-aged  boys  from  grades  six,  seven, 
and  eight  of  the  elementary  schools. 

The  authors  of  this  book,  having  access  as  they  do 
to  the  resources  of  these  two  institutions,  have  been 
enabled  to  collect  and  to  organize  the  material  pre- 
sented herewith.  They  have  also  studied  the  prevo- 
cational work  in  other  cities  by  personal  inspection  of 
the  schools  and  by  examination  of  their  courses  of  study. 
It  is  believed  that  the  facts  presented  will  be  valuable 
not  only  to  instructors  of  prevocational  classes,  but  as 
well  to  teachers  in  those  elementary  schools  where  no 
special  provisions  are  made  for  the  pupils  who  are  fail- 
ing in  the  usual  school  work,  or  who  are  apparently 
hopelessly  behind  grade  or  are  certainly  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  aims  and  methods  of  so-called  "general 
education."  Since  prevocational  work  is  almost  inva- 
riably given  for  the  benefit  of  such  children,  doubt- 
less1 many  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools  will  be 
glad  to  learn  of  some  of  the  concrete  material  which 
the  special  schools  are  utilizing  in  teaching  the  regular 
school  subjects;  as,  for  example,  reading,  history,  civics, 
hygiene,  elementary  science,  arithmetic,  shopwork,  and 
drawing. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  present  in  detail  some 
of  the  school  subjects,  setting  forth  the  methods  which 
have  been  found  to  be  measurably  successful,  the  ob- 
jects which  have  been  paramount  in  presenting  the 
subjects,  some  of  the  concrete  material  which  has  been 
used,  and  references  to  sources  of  other  similar  ma- 
terial. 

This  presentation  of  concrete  materiaT'will  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  discussion  of  the  need  of  prevocational  work 


PREFACE  V 

as  an  essential  part  of  the  American  public  school  sys- 
tem, and  of  the  present  development  of  the  movement. 

The  discussion  deals  largely  with  the  work  which  has 
been  developed  for  boys.  It  is  believed,  however,  that 
the  principles  apply  also  in  the  field  of  girls'  work,  and 
it  is  hoped  that  this  somewhat  neglected  side  may  re- 
ceive some  stimulus  from  this  presentation. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  made  of  valuable  assist- 
ance received  from  various  sources.  Members  of  the 
Graduate  Department  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
have  cooperated  in  collecting  suitable  material  for 
courses  of  study  and  in  presenting  such  material  experi- 
mentally to  the  industrial  classes.  Prominent  among 
these  graduate  students  are  Miss  Miriam  Besley,  Miss 
L.  Grace  Huff,  Mr.  L.  A.  P.  Harms  and  Mr.  L.  V.  Koos. 

Thanks  are  due  the  following  school  officials  for  pre- 
paring, especially  for  this  volume,  detailed  information 
regarding  the  prevocational  work  in  their  several  cities : 
Mr.  John  C.  Brodhead,  Associate  Director  of  Manual 
Arts,  Boston,  Massachusetts;  Mr.  Ben  W.  Johnson, 
Director  of  Industrial  Education,  Seattle,  Washington; 
Mr.  J.  C.  Wright,  Director  of  Vocational  and  Manual 
Training  Instruction,  Kansas  City,  Missouri;  Miss  Ethel 
M.  Lovell,  Prevocational  School,  Louisville,  Kentucky 
(now  Principal  of  the  Sewing  Trades  School,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio) ;  and  Mr.  Charles  F.  Perry,  Supervisor  of  Indus- 
trial Education,  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin. 

Especial  acknowledgment  is  made  of  the  generous 
spirit  of  cooperation  shown  by  the  Principal  of  the  Albert 
G.  Lane  Technical  High  School,  Chicago,  Mr.  William 
J.  Bogan,  whose  sympathy  and  courage  have  made  pos- 
sible the  remarkable  exemplification  of  prevocational 
work  to  be  found  in  that  institution. 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Natube  and  Purpose  op  Prevocational 
Education 1 

II.  Prevocational  Education  a  Natural  Develop-  i 

MENT   OF  THE  SCHOOL   SYSTEM  ....      13 

III.  Vocational  Education  a  Local  Question       .    25 

IV.  The  Inauguration  of  Prevocational  Classes  .    36 

V.  Personal  Characteristics  of  Prevocational 

Boys 58 

VI.  Appropriate   Subject-Matter    for    Prevoca- 
tional Classes 70 

VH.  Physiology  and  Hygiene 83 

VDI.  History 104 

IX.  Science        .      .      , 136 

X.  English 147 

XI.  Mathematics 173 

XII.  Shopwork  and  Drawing 193 

In  Conclusion 234 

Index 243 


PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION;  IN 
THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  NATURE  AND  PURPOSE  OF  PREVOCATIONAL 
EDUCATION 

The  genuine  public  and  professional  interest  in  voca- 
tional education,  which  has  developed  such  proportions 
during  the  past  decade,  has  resulted  in  many  modifica- 
tions of,  and  additions  to,  public-school  functions  and 
practices.  Perhaps  none  of  these  is  more  far-reaching  in 
its  import  than  the  development  of  prevocational  work 
and  all  that  it  represents  in  our  public-school  systems. 

Several  cities  have  developed  prevocational  work, 
and,  while  such  work  varies  in  organization  and  con- 
tent, a  common  purpose  and  similar  methods  are  found 
in  all  these  examples.  The  term  "prevocational"  has 
been  employed  in  this  book  in  the  commonly  accepted 
meaning  which  these  cities  give  it,  but  it  is  desirable, 
at  the  outset,  to  discuss  in  a  general  way  the  meaning 
of  this  term;  the  purpose  of  establishing  such  work;  and 
the  more  important  characteristics  of  the  pupils  to 
whom  the  work  is  given. 

That  the  term  "prevocational"  needs  some  explana- 
tion is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  it  is  used  in  so  many 
different  ways.  In  common  with  the  names  affixed  to 
many  other  plans  of  action,  the  term  does  not  fully 
and  accurately  describe  the  procedure  which  it  serves  to 


£  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

denominate.  It  is  impossible  to  find  a  name  which  will 
accurately  describe  or  define  the  characteristics  of  the 
school  work  which  is  now  being  done  under  the  term  in 
question,  but  the  characteristics  themselves  will  be  re- 
vealed throughout  this  volume.  It  is  desirable  in  this 
connection,  however,  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  word 
during  the  five  or  six  years  of  its  existence,  in  order  to 
determine  what  the  term  really  denotes. 

A  clear  understanding  of  the  term  may  be  gained  by 
reflecting  on  the  nature  of  a  pre-legal  or  a  pre-medical 
course  as  offered  in  a  university.  Such  courses  are  in- 
tended to  be  as  cultural  as  any  other  college  work,  but 
they  are  intended  to  give  the  kind  of  cultural  training 
which  will  furnish  the  best  foundation  for  the  subse- 
quent legal  or  medical  course.  Such  courses  are  made  up 
of  regular  college  subjects  so  grouped  that  they  will  ful- 
fill all  academic  requirements  for  a  degree.  It  is  not 
contemplated  that  any  important  subdivision  of  human 
knowledge  included  in  the  degree  course  —  as,  for  ex- 
ample, history  —  shall  be  omitted  entirely,  but  it  is  sug- 
gested that  certain  subjects  be  emphasized  more  than 
others,  and  especially  that  intelligent  selection  of  ma- 
terial be  made  from  the  many  possibilities  afforded  by 
the  different  required  subjects.  Here  is  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  of  two  subjects  which  are  equally  cultural, 
one  may  have  more  practical  value  than  the  other  for 
certain  individuals. 

In  the  same  way  prevocational  work  is  intended  to 

be  as  cultural  and  as  inspirational  as  any  of  the  regular 

'  school  work  for  the  children  to  whom  it  is  given,  but  it 

(  is  more  valuable  than  the  regular  work  as  a  preparation 

.  for  the  subsequent  occupational  experiences  of  these 

*  children,  most  of  whom  enter  "vocations"  at  an  early 


NATURE  AND  PURPOSE  S 

age,  and  it  is  a  better  and  more  attractive  preparation 
for  the  vocational  courses  higher  up  than  is  the  regular 
course  for  which  it  is  substituted. 

It  is  necessary,  at  this  point,  to  note  the  modern 
educational  significance  of  the  term  "vocational  edu- 
cation." While  it  is  evident  that  professional  educa- 
tion is  "vocational  education,"  the  word  "vocational," 
as  it  is  commonly  used,  refers  to  the  education  which 
prepares  somewhat  specifically  for  the  humbler  occupa- 
tions, those  which  require  a  preparation  of  less  than 
college  grade,  and  which,  therefore,  are  not  reached  by 
way  of  the  university.  The  first  occupations  for  which 
this  humbler  or  non-professional  vocational  training 
was  given  were  industrial  in  their  nature.  For  this  rea- 
son "industrial  education"  was  the  term  first  used  to 
designate  all  kinds  of  practical  education  for  those  who 
could  not  have  or  did  not  want  a  professional  training, 
but  who,  nevertheless,  needed  a  purposeful  prepara- 
tion for  the  work  which  they  would  be  called  upon  to 
do.  The  term  "  vocational  education"  came  into  prom- 
inence only  after  the  term  "industrial  education"  was 
seen  to  be  too  narrow  to  cover  all  the  school  activities 
conducted  under  that  name. 

Thus  "vocational  education"  refers  to  educational 
programs  which  contemplate  school  training  of  less  than 
college  grade,  and  which  relate  to  the  humbler  voca- 
tions or  occupations.  Such  training  is,  furthermore,  in- 
tended for  pupils  fourteen  years  of  age  or  over. 

With  this  conception  of  the  meaning  of  the  term 
"vocational,"  it  becomes  clear  that  " prevocatipnal " 
simply  means  the  type  of  general  education  which  will 
lay  a  better  foundation  for  vocational  courses  than  is 
commonly  laid  by  the  regular  school  work. 


4  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  the  term  "pre vocational" 
is  misleading  and  likely  to  deceive  the  public,  since  it 
carries  the  suggestion  of  specific  preparation  for  a 
vocation  when,  in  reality,  it  does  not  necessarily  give 
such  preparation.  To  this  objection  it  should  be  said 
that  the  training  given  is  preparatory  for  vocational 
education  rather  than  for  a  vocation  itself.  It  cannot 
be  denied  successfully  that  the  traditional  work  of  the 
elementary  school  is  preparatory  for  a  higher  school 
which,  in  its  turn,  is  preparatory  for  a  still  higher 
education.  To  the  prevocational  type  of  child,  the 
practical  application  of  it  all  seems  to  be  postponed 
indefinitely.  The  prevocational  course,  therefore,  seeks 
to  prepare  for  final  vocational  courses  which  reveal 
clearly  their  immediate  articulation  with  the  work  of 
the  world.  Consequently  the  prevocational  course  gives, 
in  a  very  genuine  sense,  quite  as  definite  a  preparation 
for  vocational  life  as  its  name  would  seem  to  imply. 

While  the  term  has  sometimes  been  loosely  used  and 
has  been  made  to  apply  to  widely  different  courses  of 
study,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  recent  years  it 
has  come  to  have  a  commonly  accepted  place  in  educa- 
tional nomenclature.  The  work  which  is  done  under  this 
name  in  a  number  of  the  large  cities  makes  it  evident 
that  a  prevocational  course  is  an  attempt  to  modify 
the  work  commonly  found  in  grades  seven  and  eight, 
or  possibly  six,  seven,  and  eight,  in  order  to  motivate 
that  work  for  those  pupils  who  have  been  seriously  re- 
tarded and  are  hopelessly  behind  grade  because  they 
need  the  stimulation  which  comes  from  concrete  doing, 
or  because  of  pronounced  irregularity  in  attendance 
resulting  from  peculiar  home  conditions  or  from  illness. 
While  these  pupils  vary  in  their  characteristics,  they 


NATURE  AND  PURPOSE  5 

are  alike  in  this,  that  they  are  predisposed  to  leave  . 
school  at  an  early  age.  Again,  while  they  are  thus  dis- 
posed  for  a  variety  of  reasons,  one  reason  is  practically 
common  to  all,  namely,  a  distaste  for  school  work  as  \ 
they  know  it,  and  a  consequent  inclination  to  substi-  I 
tute  vocational  for  educational  life.  Pre  vocational  work,  ] 
therefore,  has  come  to  have  a  clearly  defined  purpose, 
namely,  to  secure  an  adjustment  of  the  "system"  to 
these  vocationally  minded  pupils.  They  need  the  funda- 
mental book  subjects  as  much  as  the  others,  and  if  the 
"bookish"  way  of  teaching  does  not  make  its  appeal 
strongly  to  them,  the  problem  is  to  vitalize  such  work 
by  devising  other  methods  and  by  accepting  different, 
though  not  necessarily  lower,  standards  of  attainment 
than  those  by  which  school  work  is  usually  measured. 
The  prevocational  course,  therefore,  may  appear  to 
be  only  a  modified  form  of  general  education,  and  it 
may  be  asked  why  it  should  not  be  so  designated  and 
be  recommended  for  adoption  for  all  elementary  school 
pupils.  The  reply  is  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  make 
such  substitution  for  work  which  has  been  conducted 
so  successfully  with  thousands  upon  thousands  of  chil- 
dren. It  is  neither  desirable  nor  necessary  to  relinquish 
traditional  practices  which  are  contributing  so  surely  to 
the  progress  of  many  school  children,  but  it  is  quite 
another  matter  to  urge  the  adoption  of  different  courses 
and  new  methods  for  that  considerable  group  of  chil- 
dren who  do  not  succeed  with  the  traditional  work.  The 
prevocational  experiments,  however,  have  important 
lessons  for  the  traditional  schools,  and,  since  retarded 
children  are  to  be  found  in  nearly  all  elementary  schools, 
grade  teachers  everywhere  will  be  benefited  greatly  by 
studying  the  methods  of  prevocational  education.    . 


6  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Whether  these  retarded  children  of  thirteen  to  fifteen 
years  of  age  are  in  the  grades  or  in  special  prevocational 
classes,  it  is  not  so  important  that  they  learn  certain 
prescribed  facts  as  it  is  that  they  gain  a  desire  to  learn 
something.  What  that  something  is  does  not  matter 
so  much  in  the  beginning  as  that  more  attention  be 
given  to  developing  pronounced  individual  differences. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  all  become  interested  in  the 
same  studies,  but  it  is  fundamentally  important  that 
each  becomes  intellectually  active,  —  vitally  and  dy- 
namically interested  in  some  school  work,  —  so  much 
interested  that  the  whole  scheme  of  education  takes  on 
a  new  meaning  and  becomes  a  genuine  pleasure. 

In  a  certain  prevocational  class  the  boys  attended 
school  during  the  whole  summer,  seven  and  one  half 
hours  daily.  Some  of  the  parents  expressed  a  doubt  as 
to  whether  the  work  could  be  really  valuable,  because 
the  boys  liked  it  so  much.  It  must  be  confessed  that 
many  teachers  hold  the  opinion  that  school  work  should 
be  filled  with  hard,  unpleasant  drudgery  if  it  is  to  be 
truly  educational,  a  belief  which  is  evidently  shared 
by  children  of  the  prevocational  type  and  one  which 
has  led  most  of  them  to  decide  that  school  is  to  be 
avoided  and  attendance  to  be  discontinued  as  early  as 
possible.  It  would  be  interesting  to  speculate  upon  the 
effect  of  this  belief  upon  American  education. 

It  is  amusing  —  or  it  would  be  if  it  were  not  so  serious 
—  how  many  teachers  to-day  believe  that  the  greatest 
intellectual  benefit  comes  to  the  pupil  from  the  work 
which  he  finds  most  disagreeable,  but  which,  neverthe- 
less, he  prosecutes  with  great  diligence  and  from  a  sense 
of  duty.  Much  of  the  high-school  Latin  and  mathe- 
matics has  been  justified  for  most  pupils  and  held  to 


NATURE  AND  PURPOSE  7 

be  all  but  indispensable  to  their  education,  on  the 
ground  that,  because  of  its  difficulty,  it  exacts  a  type 
and  intensity  of  intellectual  effort  sure  to  be  of  great 
benefit  in  developing  the  mental  powers  of  the  pupils 
wholly  regardless  of  its  practical  or  utilitarian  value. 
That  much  of  the  work  could  not  reveal  its  true  worth 
and  beauty  until  many  years  of  diligent  study  had  been 
given  to  it  was  considered  to  enhance  the  educational 
value  of  the  effort  expended  upon  it. 

Because  boys  of  the  prevocational  type  are  predis- 
posed to  seek  early  employment,  such  pedagogical 
motives  for  "getting  an  education"  are  discarded,  and 
an  attempt  is  made  to  utilize  the  incentives  common  to 
the  workaday  world.  There  is  no  reliance  on  the  pre- 
posterous proposition  that  an  education  will  enable 
one  to  earn  his  living  without  laborious  work,  but 
rather  there  is  an  attempt  to  show  the  necessity  for 
hard  work  and  especially  the  rewards  and  the  satisfac- 
tions which  it  brings. 

Most  of  the  world's  knowledge  has  been  acquired 
through  the  unremitting,  painstaking  efforts  of  patient, 
energetic,  steadfast  souls,  working  toward  some  goal, 
which,  for  one  reason  or  another,  assumed  an  interest 
greater  than  all  else  to  that  particular  individual.  Mere 
toil  has  done  much  for  the  world,  especially  when  car- 
ried on  under  wise  leadership,  but  toil  inspired  by  an 
ideal,  until  toil  itself  becomes  a  joy,  has  worked  the 
world's  wonders  and  brought  its  blessings. 

Educational  literature  reveals  many  attempts  to 
improve  pedagogical  methods  through  the  appeal  to 
direct,  immediate  interest  in  work  as  well  as  in  study, 
yet  even  down  to  our  own  times  the  rod  has  generally 
been  the  emblem  of  the  schoolmaster  and  compulsion 


8  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

has  been  his  method.  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froe- 
bel  have  all  preached  the  doctrine  of  joy  in  educational 
effort  of  all  kinds,  but  our  methods  of  study  and  reci- 
tation, of  rewards  and  punishments,  of  the  selection  of 
the  "fit"  and  the  elimination  of  the  "slow"  and  "stu- 
pid," have  remained  strangely  stationary  amid  the 
change  of  subject-matter,  schoolroom  surroundings, 
and  student  body.  There  seems  to  have  been  little  cre- 
dence given  to  the  opinion  that  "the  world  is  to  be 
saved  by  the  laughter  of  the  school  children." 

Within  the  past  ten  years,  however,  there  has  come 
a  considerable  change  in  this  matter  so  far  as  it  relates 
to  the  pupils  whom  we  are  considering  in  this  volume  — 
the  prevocational  type. 

These  children,  usually  found  stranded  or  progress- 
ing but  slowly  in  the  upper  elementary  grades,  have 
been  unwilling  or  unable  to  apply  themselves,  and  have 
resisted  the  attempts  of  others  to  drive  them  to  the 
lifeless  task  of  reading  and  memorizing  a  mass  of  lit- 
erary material  which  some  one  else  assures  them  will 
do  them  great  ultimate  good,  but  which,  so  far  as  they 
can  see,  is  unrelated  to  anything  in  their  own  lives  past, 
present,  or  to  come.  They  have  finally  rebelled,  or 
have  acquired  a  refractory  exterior  which  effectually 
protects  them  against  the  persuasions  of  their  long- 
suffering  teachers. 

Now,  these  children,  for  their  own  benefit  and  for 
the  sake  of  society,  must  be  "educated."  How  shall 
it  be  accomplished?  If  being  "educated"  means  "suc- 
cessfully completing  a  required  course  of  study"  and 
in  a  given  way  and  at  a  given  time,  the  task  is  well- 
nigh  hopeless  and  may  as  well  be  abandoned,  as  long 
experience  has  evidenced.    But  if  it  can  be  conceded 


NATURE  AND  PURPOSE  9 

that  education  may  come  from  action  and  from  think- 
ing about  that  action  with  the  view  of  determining  sub- 
sequent procedure,  and  if  it  be  acknowledged  that  such 
thinking  may  be  rationalized  by  what  others  have  done 
and  thought  before,  then  we  have  the  basis  for  a  new 
educational  program. 

Prevocational  children  are  permitted  to  do  things 
peculiarly  adapted  to  their  individual  fitness,  and  to 
think,  talk,  write,  and  figure  about  the  things  which 
they  have  done.  Action  may  be  widely  varied;  think- 
ing about  a  certain  action  may  impel  to  more  of  the 
same  thing  or  to  a  great  range  of  similar  or  related  ac- 
tivity, and  both  may  be  radically  affected  by  reading 
about  what  mankind  has  done  along  this  line  and  re- 
lated lines.  It  is  in  this  relation  that  the  study  of  books 
becomes  effective  for  prevocational  children.  It  is  use- 
less to  try  to  educate  these  or  any  other  children  with- 
out liberal  use  of  books.  In  fact,  the  most  important 
part  of  the  prevocational  course  is  what  is  usually 
referred  to  as  "the  related  academic  work,"  and  the 
most  important  part  of  the  program  consists  in  mo- 
tivating this  book  work  by  correlating  it  with  some 
concrete,  constructive  work  with  a  vocational  content 
which  the  children  genuinely  enjoy  and  at  which  they 
will  work  vigorously. 

Most  of  that  which  has  been  written  about  "joy  in 
work"  has  referred  to  some  kind  of  laborious,  manual 
work.  It  should  be  remembered  that,  for  many  indi- 
viduals, intellectual  work  is  laborious  and  that  it  is 
quite  necessary  to  find  some  way  of  making  it  joyous, 
—  in  other  words,  of  "motivating  education."  Indeed 
the  worker  in  every  field  of  human  endeavor,  even  the 
highest,  needs  the  stimulus  which  comes  from  joy  in 


10  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

anticipated  achievement  that  he  may  despise  and  en- 
dure the  stress  and  strain  "for  the  joy  that  is  set  before 
him."  The  new  educational  program  provides  for  the 
bringing  together  in  actual  realization  the  necessity 
for  hard  work  and  the  joy  in  its  accomplishment. 

This  is  a  program  which  has  proved  highly  effective 
in  stimulating  the  children  in  prevocational  classes, 
for  while  it  can  be  said  truly  that  such  pupils  are 
" concrete-minded/ '  "seriously  retarded,"  or  "anti- 
book,"  they  have  two  characteristics  even  more  pro- 
nounced than  these.  First,  they  are  physically  active, 
and  secondly,  they  are  strongly  individualistic  and  can 
never  be  grouped  successfully  under  any  narrowly  limit- 
ing classifications.  Above  all  they  must  not  be  con- 
sidered "stupid"  because  they  are  behind  their  fellows 
in  grade,  and  only  rarely  have  they  been  found  to  be 
"subnormal."  May  it  not  be,  after  all,  that  our  school 
system  appeals  in  the  main  to  one  rather  commonplace 
type  of  mind,  albeit  a  type  which  is  wholly  praise- 
worthy and  of  immense  value  to  society  in  that  it  can 
be  counted  upon  to  react  in  a  particular  way  to  any 
given  set  of  conditions  or  experiences,  and  that  the 
boys  of  whom  we  are  speaking,  being  active  and  strongly 
individualistic,  are  nevertheless  quite  as  normal,  even 
more  interesting  and  possibly  of  even  greater  potential 
value  to  society  at  large  if  their  energies  are  directed 
into  the  proper  channels?  It  is  our  purpose  in  a  later 
chapter  to  set  forth  as  vividly  as  may  be  the  charming, 
lovable,  human  characteristics  of  prevocational  boys 
in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  no  reasonable  effort  on 
the  part  of  society  to  save  them  for  years  of  subsequent 
training  and  education  is  too  great  in  the  light  of  their 
potential  worth. 


NATURE  AND  PURPOSE  11 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  the  establish- 
ment of  prevocational  work  is  essentially  one  of  the 
features  of  the  great  social  movement  toward  universal 
education.  Perhaps  the  final  outcome  of  this  movement 
may  result  in  the  opening  of  our  palatial  high  schools 
throughout  the  country,  not  only  to  the  small  minority 
who  are  now  receiving  the  benefits  of  the  many  oppor- 
tunities there  afforded,  but  to  the  vast  majority  of  boys 
and  girls  of  high-school  age,  many  of  whom  are  hope- 
lessly stranded  in  the  grades.  It  may  be  that  we  shall 
come  to  see  that  what  we  have  considered  our  high 
standards,  as  regards  admission  to  the  people's  high 
schools,  are  really  evidences  of  the  relentlessness  with 
which  we  have  excluded  from  the  beneficent  influences 
of  these  institutions  the  very  children  who  need  them 
most.  When  our  high  schools  shall  become  thoroughly 
democratized,  and  when  "secondary  education"  shall 
mean  education  appropriate  for  any  and  all  normal 
children  between  twelve  and  eighteen  years  of  age,  it 
may  well  be  that  prevocational  work  will  pass  off  the 
stage  and  that  the  term  will  no  longer  have  any  sig- 
nificance. For  the  present,  however,  "prevocational" 
must  stand  for  the  symbol  of  liberality  in  providing, 
either  in  our  upper  elementary  grades  or  in  our  high 
schools,  appropriate  types  of  educational  activities  for 
all  children  and  for  a  promise  that  such  work  will  be 
administered  in  the  spirit  of  justice  and  impartial  sym- 
pathy. Such  a  procedure  will  be  of  untold  benefit  to 
the  future  industrial  workers  of  the  country  and  to  the 
industries  which  their  labor  makes  possible,  and  when 
we  shall  have  ceased  to  prate  of  the  dignity  of  labor, 
and  shall  have  made  provisions  for  dignifying  the  work- 
ers by  giving  them  an  honored  place  in  a  truly  demo- 


12  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

cratic  school  system,  we  shall  have  done  much  more  than 
advance  the  industrial  interests  of  the  United  States. 
We  shall  have  helped  to  make  our  schools,  what  they 
can  never  be  under  the  conditions  which  obtain  very 
largely  to-day,  dynamic  agencies  for  social  betterment. 


CHAPTER  II 

PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION  A  NATURAL  DEVEL- 
OPMENT OF  THE  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  vocational  education 
movement  is  but  a  phase  of  the  progress  of  the  nation 
toward  universal  education,  it  is  important  to  consider 
certain  recurrent  questions  relating  to  education  in 
general,  questions  which  never  have  been,  perhaps 
never  can  be,  permanently  answered.  Due  considera- 
tion of  these  questions  is  indispensable  to  a  compre- 
hension of  the  real  significance  of  the  development  of 
vocational  and  prevocational  work  in  the  history  of 
American  education.  "-" 

The  more  important  and  pertinent  of  these  recurrent 
questions  are:  To  whom  shall  education  be  given?  Who 
shall  give  the  education?  Why  shall  it  be  given?  Of 
what  shall  it  consist? 

One  who  thinks  deeply  regarding  these  questions 
will  be  convinced  that  the  subject  is  a  complicated  one. 
Little  by  little  it  will  appear  that  there  are  two  conflict- 
ing points  of  view.  The  first  is  that  the  individual  is  to 
be  educated  for  his  own  benefit;  the  second,  that  he  is 
to  be  educated  for  the  benefit  of  society. 

Comenius  was  perhaps  the  first  of  modern  educators 
to  state,  as  he  did,  about  1630,  the  principle  of  parental 
responsibility  for  the  education  of  the  child.  It  would 
seem  natural  that  education  resulting  from  such  re- 
sponsibility would  have  in  mind  chiefly  the  well-being 


14  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

of  the  individual.  It  might,  and  under  some  conditions 
actually  does,  so  equip  the  individual  that  he  can  get 
more  than  his  share  of  the  good  things  of  life. 

But  another  principle  has  been  advanced,  namely, 
the  responsibility  of  the  State.  The  State  is  held  some- 
what responsible  both  for  furnishing  the  education  and 
for  requiring  the  individual  to  submit  himself  to  the 
process  of  being  educated. 

Another  fact  must  be  noted  at  this  point.  There  is 
to-day,  and  always  has  been,  a  difference  of  opinion  as 
to  just  what  experiences,  educational  and  occupational, 
for  youths  between  twelve  and  eighteen,  will  be  to  the 
best  ultimate  advantage  of  the  individual.  It  happens, 
therefore,  that  the  position  and  progress  of  the  youth 
between  twelve  and  eighteen  are  the  resultant  of  two 
forces,  one  tending  to  hold  him  in  school,  the  other  tend- 
ing to  draw  him  into  occupational  life. 

Each  of  these  forces  is  complex  and  deserves  at  least 
a  brief  analysis. 

Among  the  most  important  influences  tending  to 
hold  the  individual  in  school  until  his  eighteenth  or 
twentieth  year  may  be  mentioned  the  following:  — 

Tradition  in  this  country  confers  a  certain  distinc- 
tion on  those  people  who  have  had  extended  connection 
with  educational  institutions.  The  professional  man, 
or  even  the  college  graduate  just  because  he  is  a  college 
graduate,  is  looked  upon  as  in  a  sense  superior  to,  or 
distinguished  from,  all  others. 

Then  there  are  various  and  genuine  personal  advan- 
tages which  come  with  traditional  education.  These 
advantages  are  comprehensible  to,  and  highly  prized  by, 
the  true  educator.  In  proportion  as  he  is  impressed 
with  the  value  of  personal  culture  and  literary  learning, 


A  NATURAL  DEVELOPMENT  15 

he  sincerely  desires  it  for  all  those  who  come  under  his 
care,  and  he  conscientiously  and  persistently  influences 
all  his  pupils  to  secure  this  prolonged  period  of  school- 
ing. 

Another  factor  which  must  be  reckoned  with  is  that 
the  school  affords  an  asylum  for  those  youths  who  are 
disinclined  to  take  up  the  real  burdens  of  tteTwork  of 
the  world,  and  also  for  those  parents  who,  being  too 
busy  to  decide  for  themselves  the  best  means  of  educat- 
ing their  children,  hand  them  over  to  the  care  of  some 
educational  institution  as  the  easiest  way,  whether  that 
institution  is  equipped  to  develop  the  particular  indi- 
vidual or  not. 

In  opposition  to  these  influences  are  to  be  noted  cer- 
tain others  which  tend  to  draw  children  or  youths  away 
from  school.  There  is  a  constant  demand  on  the  part 
of  industry  for  the  labor  of  children  and  young  people. 
Part  of  this  demand  comes  from  the  desire  to  secure 
labor  at  a  cost  which  is  less  than  its  real  value,  and  part 
of  it  arises  because  certain  industrial  processes  can  be 
learned  more  readily  by  children  than  by  adults. 

Then  there  is  a  genuine  need  that  some  children  con- 
tribute to  their  own  support  as  early  in  life  as  possible. 
Under  the  present  economic  system  it  is  not  probable 
that  all  children  can  be  maintained  in  idleness  until 
eighteen  years  of  age  without  charity  or  a  considerable 
extension  of  socialistic  ideals. 

Again  there  are  types  of  young  people  who  respond 
much  more  quickly  to  the  educational  opportunities  of 
real  work  than  to  the  stimuli  of  school  conditions  and 
requirements.  While  there  are  educators  who  extol  the 
training  which  comes  through  work,  and  while  many 
attempts  have  been  made  to  secure  these  advantages 


16  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

for  the  school  curriculum,  the  general  lack  of  concrete 
work  in  the  schools  drives  many  youths  early  into  occu- 
pations. 

As  noted  above,  we  have  here  two  groups  of  forces 
which  are  determining  the  amount  of  school  training 
which  each  individual  receives. 

Society  is  coming  to  see  that  there  are  certain  dan- 
gers which  will  arise,  if  the  second  group  of  influences 
becomes  too  strong.  It  is  futile  to  continue  to  turn  a 
stream  of  child  workers  into  occupations  which  are 
paying  adults  less  than  a  living  wage,  thus  necessitat- 
ing the  consignment  of  their  children  to  industry  at  the 
earliest  possible  age. 

Even  some  of  our  far-sighted  employers  believe  that 
the  future  of  industry  stands  in  doubt  if  we  are  contin- 
ually to  recruit  its  ranks  only  from  those  consigned  to 
it  by  poverty,  inexperience,  and  lack  of  personal  ini- 
tiative. Instead  society  must  see  to  it  that  at  least  a 
saving  minority  shall  enter  industry  because  they  choose 
to  do  so,  and  then  enter  it  only  when  properly  equipped 
to  cope  with  the  difficulties  presented  by  our  complex 
industrial  system,  difficulties  technical,  social,  and 
personal. 

The  phenomenon  which  we  call  the  demand  for  in- 
dustrial education  is  a  sincere  attempt  to  hold  true  the 
balance  between  the  two  groups  of  forces  described 
above,  and  this  result  will  be  obtained  most  effectively 
where  industrial  training  is  given  in  close  proximity  to 
other  types  of  school  work. 

Let  us  make  no  mistake.  No  education  has  ever  been 
given  which  has  not  contained  elements  of  both  gen- 
eral and  specific  training,  of  both  liberal  and  vocational 
education.    Even  the  most  specialized  form  of  indus- 


A  NATURAL  DEVELOPMENT  17 

trial  training  has  invariably  carried  with  it  some  gen- 
eral, intellectual  development.  Work  given  as  "indus- 
trial education"  which  leaves  the  worker  with  the  same 
mental  equipment  he  possessed  at  the  beginning  can- 
not be  classified  as  "education''  at  all.  In  other  words, 
industrial  education  has  always  given  a  considerable 
degree  of  general  training.  Its  tendency,  therefore,  is 
to  ally  itself  with  the  group  of  influences  which  holds 
the  youth  in  school.  To  the  question,  "  Shall  this  youth 
be  educated  ? "  the  promoter  of  industrial  education 
answers,  "Yes." 

What  is  industrial  training  and  how  has  it  grown  to 
its  present  status  as  a  factor  in  education?  By  what 
means  may  it  be  still  further  developed?  Is  a  natural 
growth  or  a  forced  growth  more  likely  to  produce  a 
type  of  training  which  is  consistent  with  our  democratic 
institutions  and  directly  beneficial  to  those  for  whom 
the  work  is  being  projected?  These  are  questions  which 
demand  the  most  careful  study. 

What  is  industrial  training?  As  a  basis  for  discussion 
let  it  be  defined  simply  as  "education  for  the  industrial 
worker."  Enlarging  somewhat  upon  this  definition  we 
should  say  that  the  education  must  be  appropriate  for 
the  industrial  worker;  complete  as  far  as  it  is  carried,  — 
that  is,  it  must  include  all  features,  technical,  general, 
inspirational,  recreational;  and  that  it  must  be  dy- 
namic, impelling  the  learner  to  desire  more  and  more. 

For  centuries  it  was  not  thought  necessary  to  "edu- 
cate" industrial  workers,  or  at  least  certain  grades  of 
industrial  workers,  except  in  so  far  as  they  were  trained 
by  and  for  their  daily  occupations.  Even  in  New  Eng- 
land, in  earliest  colonial  days,  the  required  schooling 
had  no  reference  to  the' learner's  economic  status,  but 


18  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

merely  was  intended  to  enable  him  to  read  the  Bible  and 
understand  the  common  law  of  the  land. 

It  was  not  until  it  became  a  matter  of  general  knowl- 
edge and  of  social  concern  that  the  industrial  workers 
were  not  being  educated,  in  any  sense  of  the  word,  that 
the  demand  arose  for  "industrial  education." 

It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  the  initial  steps  to- 
ward industrial  education  should  have  been  taken  in  a 
community  where  the  industrial  workers  formed  a  large 
and  important  part  of  the  population.  Industrial  devel- 
opment and  density  of  population  are  generally  co- 
existent. In  fact,  density  of  population  may  well  be 
taken  as  evidence  of  industrial  development  and  of  the 
presence  of  masses  of  industrial  workers. 

Relatively  few  people  who  have  drawn  lessons  in 
industrial  education  from  the  experiences  of  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  have  realized  that  the  State  is  one  of 
the  most  densely  populated  regions  in  the  world.  Bar- 
ring Rhode  Island,  which  is  practically  all  urban,  Mas- 
sachusetts is  the  most  densely  populated  State  in  the 
nation.  Compared  with  Indiana,  one  of  the  States  which 
has  based  its  industrial  education  laws  on  those  of 
Massachusetts,  we  find  419  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile  in  Massachusetts  as  against  75  in  Indiana.  These 
figures  are  taken  from  the  federal  census  of  1910,  but 
the  industrialism  of  the  State  is  of  long  standing  and 
has  had  much  to  do  with  the  development  of  educational 
methods  and  ideals  in  that  commonwealth. 

In  fact,  in  the  light  of  our  simple  definition,  we  might 
say  that  the  first  "industrial  education"  law  was  passed 
in  1852  when  Massachusetts  put  upon  her  statute 
books  the  first  compulsory  school  attendance  laws  in 
the  United  States. 


A  NATURAL  DEVELOPMENT  19 

Why  may  this  be  called  an  "industrial  education" 
law?  It  came  after  a  prolonged  period  of  industrial 
expansion.  In  1820  there  were  engaged  in  manufacture 
in  Massachusetts  33,464  people;  this  number  had  in- 
creased to  85,176  by  1840.  This  development  had 
brought  about  not  only  increased  opportunities  for 
children  to  work,  thereby  drawing  them  away  from  the 
schools,  but  it  also  had  brought  to  the  State  a  new  class 
of  children  whose  parents  were  willing  and  anxious  to 
have  them  work  because  their  own  training,  or  lack  of 
it,  had  not  been  such  as  to  make  them  appreciate  the 
value  of  an  education.  In  other  words,  the  force  of 
educational  tradition  was  not  strong  with  them. 

By  the  year  1852  it  had  become  clear  that  all  such 
children  must  be  forced  into  school.  Thus  we  see  that,  if 
we  accept  our  definition,  industrial  education  is  merely 
a  phase  of  society's  progress  toward  universal  edu- 
cation. 

Let  us  now  come  a  step  nearer  the  present.  Whatever 
may  be  true  about  the  rest  of  the  country,  Massachu- 
setts thought  she  was  providing  a  more  appropriate 
education  for  her  industrial  workers  when  she  first  per- 
mitted the  introduction  of  manual  training  in  1884  and 
later  required  it  in  all  cities  of  20,000  inhabitants  or 
over.  In  the  report  of  a  school  board  of  that  State  in 
1878  we  read:  — 

The  question  of  teaching  trades  in  our  schools  is  one  of  vital 
importance.  If  New  England  would  maintain  her  place  as  the 
great  industrial  center  of  the  country,  she  must  become  to  the 
United  States  what  France  is  to  the  rest  of  Europe,  the  first  in 
taste,  the  first  in  design,  the  first  in  skilled  workmanship.  She 
must  accustom  her  children  from  early  youth  to  the  use  of 
tools,  and  give  them  a  thorough  training  in  the  mechanic 
arts. 


20  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

True,  this  statement  makes  no  mention  of  the  general 
education  of  the  workers,  but  this  was  already  assumed 
since  the  work  was  to  be  given  to  the  children  "  early  " 
and  in  the  regular  schools. 

All  are  familiar  with  what  happened  to  manual  train- 
ing in  Massachusetts,  and  in  other  States,  although 
some  seem  to  overlook  certain  important  facts  in  the 
discussion  of  the  manual-training  question  to-day.  The 
work,  in  spite  of  severe  educational  opposition,  was 
sparingly  introduced  into  those  schools  or  grades  which 
were  rarely  reached  by  the  industrial  workers  for  whose 
benefit  manual  training  was  originally  intended.  No 
wonder  it  "failed,"  as  some  profess  to  believe. 

After  all,  just  what  was  the  failure?  Principally  the 
failure  to  give  the  work  to  the  right  boys.  That  is,  it 
was  introduced  so  high  up  in  the  "system"  that  it  was 
out  of  reach  of  the  future  industrial  workers.  But  this 
was  quite  natural,  after  all,  this  offering  of  choice  things 
to  those  at  or  near  the  top,  for  in  this  respect  industrial 
training  is  no  exception  to  the  general  order.  We  all 
know  that  nearly  every  good  thing  which  has  been  added 
to  the  curriculum  has  been  introduced  at  the  top  of  our 
educational  system  and  has  gradually  percolated  to  the 
bottom  until,  eventually,  the  whole  system  has  been 
modified  by  it.  This,  then,  we  may  describe  as  the 
"natural"  growth  not  only  of  industrial  training,  but 
of  every  phase  of  popular  education. 

Let  us  see  whether  there  was  a  reasonable  possibility 
that  this  process  of  percolation  would  have  resulted 
finally  in  accomplishing  the  original  purpose  of  indus- 
trial education. 

To  examine  this  question,  let  us  come  down  to  the 
time  of  the  report  of  the  Douglas  Commission  on  In- 


A  NATURAL  DEVELOPMENT  21 

dustrial  and  Technical  Education  in  1906.  This  report 
made  no  reference  to  manual  training  except  to  declare 
that  it  was  academically  useless.  It  recommended  the 
separate  industrial  school  uncontaminated  by  the  in- 
fluences of  school-teachers  or  regular  boards  of  educa- 
tion. The  latter  requirement  was  soon  dropped,  how- 
ever, and  to-day  there  are  few,  if  any,  special  industrial 
boards. 

The  City  of  Boston  never  organized  its  industrial 
education  under  a  separate  board.  Its  case  is  illustra- 
tive of  the  "natural"  development  of  industrial  edu- 
cation, and  shows  that  industrial  training  would  ulti- 
mately have  worked  down  to  the  pupils  who  needed  it. 

Prior  to  the  report  of  the  Douglas  Commission,  the 
School  Committee  of  the  City  of  Boston  had  passed 
a  rule,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  give  over-aged  chil- 
dren in  the  lower  grades  an  opportunity  of  receiving  the 
instruction  in  manual  training  usually  reserved  for 
the  later  years.  Individuals  might  be  admitted  to  the 
upper-grade  manual-training  classes,  or  special  sections 
of  such  boys  might  be  organized.  Although  little  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  this  rule  at  the  time,  it  serves  to  indi- 
cate the  tendency  to  carry  manual  or  industrial  training 
down  to  the  people  who  needed  it. 

In  the  same  year  that  the  Douglas  Commission  made 
its  report,  the  Boston  School  Committee  established 
the  first  special  class  for  boys  who  were  "industrially 
inclined."  Classes  of  this  type  are  now  called  "prevo- 
cational,"  and  have  been  established  in  eight  different 
elementary  districts.  These  "prevocational  centers" 
are  considered  a  part  of  the  regular  school  system,  are 
a  development  of  the  manual-arts  department,  and  are 
supported  from  the  regular  school  fund. 


22  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Operating  under  the  special  law  which  gives  state  aid 
to  industrial  education,  if  separately  organized,  Boston 
is  maintaining  the  Trade  School  for  Girls,  the  Evening 
Industrial  School,  and  the  Industrial  School  for  Boys. 
The  latter  institution,  the  one  most  recently  estab- 
lished, may  well  be  taken  as  illustrative  of  the  typical, 
state-aided,  "  separate  industrial  school,"  and  so  be 
used  for  purposes  of  comparison  with  the  prevoca- 
tional  type. 

The  prevocational  centers  may  thus  be  said  to  rep- 
resent the  natural  growth,  and  the  Industrial  School 
for  Boys  the  forced  or  specially  stimulated  growth  of 
industrial  education.  In  some  respects  these  two  types 
of  schools  are  similar,  in  others  somewhat  different. 
In  each  type  of  school  there  are  to  be  found  both  gen- 
eral and  special  instruction.  A  boy  under  fourteen  may 
enter  a  prevocational  class,  but  not  the  industrial  school. 
The  hours  are  somewhat  shorter  in  the  former  than 
in  the  latter.  The  most  noteworthy  difference  is  that 
the  prevocational  boys  do  not  have  to  leave  the  "sys- 
tem," and  may  go  on  to  high  school,  if  they  graduate. 
The  enrollment  in  the  industrial  school  is  180  against 
a  total  enrollment  in  the  prevocational  schools  of  370. 

The  point  of  all  this  is  that  the  natural  growth  of 
industrial  training  through  a  development  of  the  De- 
partment of  Manual  Arts  has,  without  state  aid,  accom- 
plished considerably  more  in  the  way  of  genuine  in- 
dustrial training  for  the  fourteen-  to  sixteen-year-old 
boys  of  Boston  than  has  the  special,  state-aided  plan.1 

1  Obviously  many  things  affect  the  enrollment  of  the  Industrial 
School  for  Boys,  but  the  influences  which  tended  to  keep  it  small 
unquestionably  could  have  been  met  more  easily  under  the  prevo- 
cational plan. 


A  NATURAL  DEVELOPMENT  23 

If  state  aid  had  been  given  to  the  prevocational  type 
of  industrial  education  on  the  same  basis  as  that 
afforded  the  industrial  school  (fifty  per  cent  of  the  net 
maintenance  cost),  the  number  of  boys  reached  could 
have  been  easily  twenty-five  per  cent  greater.  This 
shows  that,  with  proper  direction  and  support,  indus- 
trial education  will  eventually  percolate  down  through 
the  "system"  and  reach  the  boys  for  whom  it  was 
originally  intended,  and  will  do  it  more  effectively  than 
if  organized  outside  the  schools.  Many  educators  are 
coming  to  feel  that  if  state  aid  can  be  secured  only  by 
establishing  a  separate  system  of  industrial  schools  it 
will  be  better  to  dispense  with  such  aid  and  trust  to 
the  natural  method  of  growth  to  bring  this  much- 
needed  form  of  democratic  education. 

The  historical  phases  of  the  work  in  Massachusetts 
have  been  discussed  at  length  because  nowhere  else 
can  such  complete  development  of  both  types  of  indus- 
trial education  be  found.  The  Middle  West,  however, 
has  shown  its  determination  to  bring  industrial  educa- 
tion to  the  future  industrial  workers  in  another  way. 
There  has  been  a  growing  tendency  to  open  the  indus- 
trial education  of  the  high  schools  to  selected  boys  of 
fourteen  to  sixteen  years,  even  though  these  boys  have 
not  completed  the  work  of  the  grades.  Perhaps  the 
best  illustration  of  this  tendency  is  to  be  found  in 
the  prevocational  classes  in  the  Chicago  technical  high 
schools,  to  which  frequent  reference  will  be  made.  Here 
we  find  boys,  who  have  not  completed  the  work  of  the 
grades,  engaged  in  some  form  of  mechanical  work  ordi- 
narily given  to  high-school  classes.  They  are  doing  this 
work  and  also  are  completing  the  essentials  of  the  book 
work  of  the  grades.  In  the  Lane  Technical  High  School 


24  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

alone  there  are  250  such  boys.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  these  boys  are  still  in  the  "system"  and  that, 
in  fact,  many  of  them  become  regularly  enrolled  mem- 
bers of  the  high-school  classes. 

This  is  another  most  significant  illustration  of  the 
fact  that  the  industrial  training,  first  reserved  for  high- 
school  pupils,  has  percolated  through  the  "system" 
and  is  now  available  for  those  boys  who  really  need  it 
most.  This  growth  of  industrial  education  has  been 
possible  because  of  its  proximity  to  the  regular  school 
work,  and  it  promises  the  day  when  the  regular,  public 
high  schools  will  address  themselves  seriously  to  the 
problem  of  serving  all  the  children  of  suitable  age  who 
stand  in  need  of  any  kind  of  education. 


CHAPTER  III 

VOCATIONAL   EDUCATION  A   LOCAL  QUESTION 

As  shown  in  the  preceding  chapter  the  whole  trend 
of  public  education  indicates  that  prevocational  work 
is  sure  to  become  an  important  part  of  the  school  sys- 
tem. The  prominence  given  to  other  types  of  vocational 
work,  however,  serves  to  blind  some  educators  to  the 
necessity  for  prevocational  work,  the  result  of  the  nat- 
ural development  of  the  industrial  education  move- 
ment. Because  of  state  aid  for  vocational  schools  and 
the  consequent  demand  for  separation  of  vocational 
from  general  education,  there  has  been  kept  before  the 
public  an  agitation  for  separate  industrial,  trade,  and 
continuation  schools.  This  agitation  has  brought  with 
it  the  necessity  for  greater  accuracy  and  intelligence  in 
the  use  of  terms,  and  has  led  to  the  formulation  of  so- 
called  definitions.  These  definitions  have  sometimes 
had  a  tendency  to  confine  the  movement  within  too 
narrow  limits  and  to  set  aside  as  of  little  or  no  vocational 
value  the  whole  field  of  prevocational  work.  A  discus- 
sion of  this  controversy  is  pertinent  to  the  most  recent 
history  of  the  vocational-education  movement,  and  it 
is  included  in  this  study  as  being  necessary  to  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  importance  of  prevocational  work. 
It  is  essentially  the  study  of  what  may  be  called  the 
forced  growth  of  vocational  education  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  what  has  been  referred  to  as  the  natural  growth. 
This  forced  growth  has  been  brought  about  through 


26  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

the  stimulus  of  direct  state  aid  for  vocational  educa- 
tion. 

State  aid  for  education  is  not  a  new  thing,  but  state 
aid  for  industrial  education  was  worked  out  on  some- 
what new  lines  in  Massachusetts.  This  would  not 
interest  us,  as  did  the  early  educational  history  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  Massachu- 
setts industrial-education  law  is  being  urged  as  an 
example  of  what  other  States  should  put  upon  their 
statute  books.  In  fact,  it  is  frequently  claimed  that  six 
or  eight  States  have  modeled  their  industrial  education 
laws  on  the  Massachusetts  statutes.  It  is,  therefore, 
pertinent  to  ask  what  principles  guided  the  framers  of 
the  Massachusetts  law. 

After  a  general  survey  of  the  industries  and  the 
schools  of  the  State,  certain  principles  were  decided 
upon.  First,  that  two  or  three  rather  distinct  types  of 
schools  ought  to  be  organized;  second,  that  they  should 
be  separate  from  the  regular  schools;  third,  that  local 
communities  establishing  any  one  of  these  approved 
types  should  receive  liberal  state  aid  therefor,  but  that 
no  such  aid  should  be  given  for  vocational  work  in  the 
regular  schools,  however  excellent  the  results  obtained 
therefrom  might  be;  fourth,  that  any  inhabitant  of  the 
State,  if  eligible  for  membership  in  a  state-aided  indus- 
trial school,  might  attend  any  such  school  in  the  State. 
A  resident  of  one  town  might  attend  a  school  in  another 
without  paying  tuition  as  is  usual  in  such  cases.  It  is 
clear  that  this  points  to  the  desirability  of  developing 
schools  of  several  varieties  rather  than  of  making  all 
the  schools  similar.  Undoubtedly  this  whole  policy  was 
appropriate  for  Massachusetts,  but  it  may  wdi  be 
questioned  whether  it  is  equally  so  for  all  other  States. 


A  LOCAL  QUESTION 


27 


This  brings  us  back  again  to  the  question  of  density 
of  population.  The  following  facts  relating  to  the  area 
and  population  of  a  few  typical  States  will  repay  study: 

Massachusetts  ranks  forty-fourth  in  area  and  sixth 
in  population. 

The  United  States  in  1910  had  a  population  of  30.9 
per  square  mile,  the  Middle  Atlantic  States  of  193.2, 
while  Massachusetts  had  a  population  of  418.7  to  the 
square  mile. 


State 


Population 


Area 


Inhabitants 
per  sq.  mile 


Massachusetts.  , 

Indiana 

Illinois 

New  York 

Maine 

New  Hampshire 

Vermont 

Rhode  Island.  . 
Connecticut.  .  . . 
Washington 

Oregon 

California 

Texas 


3,366,416 

2,700,876 

5,638,591 

9,113,614 

742,371 

430,572 

355,956 

542,610 

1,114,756 

1,141,990 

672,765 

2,377,549 

3,896,542 


8,039 

36,045 

56,043 

47,6*54 

29,895 

9,031 

9,124 

1,067 

4,820 

66,836 

95,607 

155,652 

262,398 


418.7 

74.9 

100.6 

191.2 

24.8 

47.6 

39.0 

508.5 

231.2 

17.0 

7.0 

15.2 

14.8 


The  table  shows  that  Massachusetts  has  an  indus- 
trial-education problem  quite  different  from  that,  for 
example,  of  Indiana.  It  shows  that  Illinois  is  in  the 
Indiana  class  rather  than  the  Massachusetts  class.  Even 
New  York  is  sparsely  settled  as  compared  to  Massa- 
chusetts. If  we  ask  why  Massachusetts  rather  than 
some  other  New  England  State  passed  the  first  indus- 
trial-education law,  the  table  answers  us.  Of  course 
Rhode  Island  is  in  a  class  by  itself,  being  largely 
urban. 

Referring  again  to  the  Massachusetts  policy  of  es- 
tablishing different  kinds  of  schools  in  different  cities 


28  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

and  permitting  the  transfer  of  pupils,  we  should  note 
that  there  are  in  Massachusetts  twenty-five  towns  of 
25,000  inhabitants  or  over,  while  Indiana  has  but  five 
towns  of  that  class.  The  total  population  of  these 
towns  is  almost  two  thirds  that  of  the  State.  If  equally 
spaced,  in  Massachusetts  these  towns  would  be  but 
eighteen  miles  apart  from  center  to  center.  In  Indiana 
the  towns  in  the  same  class,  if  evenly  spaced,  would  be 
eighty-five  miles  apart.  These  figures  may  not  seem 
important,  but  in  a  very  genuine  sense  they  indicate 
that  the  laws  of  the  two  States  ought  not  to  be  essen- 
tially the  same,  but  rather  that  they  should  be  framed 
in  each  State  to  suit  the  actual  geographical  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  of  the  Commonwealth. 

This  belief  is  forced  upon  one  when  it  is  seen  how  the 
regulations,  with  their  hard-and-fast  definitions  relat- 
ing to  the  maintenance  of  these  separate  industrial 
schools,  —  regulations  entirely  appropriate  for  Massa- 
chusetts, —  work  themselves  out  in  the  sparsely  set- 
tled State.  Indeed  the  matter  of  "definitions"  is  one 
which  has  a  direct  bearing  on  the  recent  development 
of  vocational  education  for  the  following  reasons:  — 

First,  these  so-called  definitions  are  commonly  not 
definitions  at  all,  but  are  only  "constructions"  to  be 
put  upon  certain  words  as  used  in  a  given  law. 

Second,  statements  which  were  made  to  facilitate 
the  working  of  the  law  in  one  State  should  not  be  urged 
upon  the  country  as  a  whole  for  the  purpose  of  determin- 
ing what  direction  the  industrial-education  movement 
ought  to  take. 

Third,  when  used  to  determine,  in  advance,  what 
form  and  direction  industrial  education  ought  to  take 
in  a  given  situation,  it  is  more  likely  to  deter  than  to 


A  LOCAL  QUESTION  29 

stimulate  action,  unless  these  "definitions"  have  been 
made  to  suit  actual  conditions,  as  determined  by  in- 
vestigation, and  have  been  preceded  by  intelligent 
experimentation,  as  in  Massachusetts. 

As  illustrative  of  the  first  point  it  may  be  noted  that 
the  Massachusetts  law  provides :  — 

Independent,  industrial,  agricultural  or  household-arts 
school  shall  mean  an  organization  of  courses,  pupils,  and  teach- 
ers, under  a  distinctive  management  approved  by  the  Board 
of  Education,  designed  to  give  either  industrial,  agricultural, 
or  household-arts  education  as  herein  defined. 

The  law  then  must  further  define,  for  example,  house- 
hold-arts education.  It  does  so  as  follows:  — 

Independent  household-arts  school  shall  mean  a  vocational 
school  designed  to  develop  on  a  vocational  basis  the  capacity 
for  household  work,  such  as  cooking,  household  service  and 
other  occupations  in  the  household. 

The  Board  of  Education  is  justified  in  holding  any 
school  up  to  the  fulfillment  of  all  these  requirements 
before  granting  state  aid.  This,  however,  is  not  a  defini- 
tion of  household-arts  education,  and  no  one  is  justified 
in  saying  that  a  given  school  in  some  California  city  is 
not  a  household-arts  school  because  it  differs  radically 
from  the  Massachusetts  type  in  "organization  of 
courses,  pupils,  and  teachers"  and  because  it  is  not  put 
under  a  "distinctive  management." 

The  second  point  mentioned  above  is  the  undesira- 
bility  of  attempting  to  predetermine,  by  exact  defini- 
tions, the  future  development  of  industrial  education 
in  all  parts  of  the  country.  We  recognize  the  need  of 
clear  understanding  of  the  terms  used  to  describe  the 
different  types  of  schools,  especially  where  state  aid  is 
concerned,  but  we  maintain  that   definitions   should 


80  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

follow,  rather  than  precede,  the  creation  of  the  type  in 
question.  To  reverse  the  order  is  to  endanger  the  pres- 
ent interest  in  experimentation. 

Progressive  educators  in  all  parts  of  the  country  have 
heard  the  demand  that  our  school  work  be  brought  into 
more  immediate  and  intimate  relation  with  the  common 
life.  These  educators  have  attempted  to  meet  the  new 
demand  far  more  energetically  than  is  commonly  ap- 
preciated, and  their  experiments  have  been  varied  and 
purposeful.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  nothing  in  the  way 
of  exact  definitions  may  serve  to  convince  them  that 
such  experimentation  is  no  longer  needed,  or  that  other 
and  even  better  ways  of  meeting  the  new  demand  may 
not  be  forthcoming  as  the  result  of  such  educational 
activity. 

Referring  to  the  third  point,  namely,  that  when 
definition  precedes  experimentation  it  is  likely  to  defer 
action,  an  example  from  Indiana  may  be  cited.  The 
Indiana  law  is  interpreted  by  the  State  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, and  the  interpretation  sometimes  proves  to  be 
more  restrictive  than  the  law  itself.  This,  we  believe, 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  both  the  law  and  the  interpre- 
tation are  based,  not  on  experimentation  in  the  State, 
but  on  the  Massachusetts  statute.   The  law  states:  — 

"Evening  class"  in  industrial,  agricultural,  or  domestic- 
science  school  or  department  shall  mean  a  class  giving  such 
training  as  can  be  taken  by  persons  already  employed  during 
the  working  day,  and  which  in  order  to  be  called  "vocational" 
must  in  its  instruction  deal  with  the  subject-matter  of  the  day 
employment  and  be  so  carried  on  as  to  relate  to  the  day  em- 
ployment; but  evening  classes  in  domestic  science  relating  to 
the  home  shall  be  open  to  all  women  over  seventeen  who  are 
employed  in  any  capacity  during  the  day. 

The  State  Board  of  Education  says  that  the  control- 


A  LOCAL  QUESTION  31 

ling  purpose  of  an  evening  class  in  a  state-aided  voca- 
tional school  must  be 

to  fit  the  worker  for  more  profitable  employment  in  the  occu- 
pation in  which  he  is  actually  engaged.  An  evening  school 
which  provides  instruction  for  wage-earners,  designed  to  teach 
them  another  more  remunerative  occupation  or  trade  or  one 
permitting  a  higher  degree  of  skill  is  not  eligible  for  state  aid. 

The  law  provides  that 

"Industrial  education"  shall  mean  that  form  of  vocational 
education  which  fits  for  the  trades,  crafts  and  wage-earning 
pursuits,  including  the  occupation  of  girls  and  women  carried 
on  in  stores,  workshops,  and  other  establishments. 

Also  that 

"Industrial,  agricultural  or  domestic-science  school  or  depart- 
ment" shall  mean  an  organization  of  courses,  pupils,  and 
teachers  designed  to  give  either  industrial,  agricultural  or 
domestic-science  education  as  herein  defined,  under  a  separate 
director  or  head. 

Interpreting  this  law  the  State  Board  of  Education 
says :  — 

In  these  schools  a  close  relation  must  be  maintained  between 
theory  and  practice.  There  will  be  no  general  departments  of 
arts  or  sciences,  no  systematic  work  in  mathematics  or  draw- 
ing. .  .  .  This  being  the  final  professional  school  for  the  in- 
dustrial worker,  the  pupils'  attendance  at  the  school  should 
be  cut  as  short  as  may  be  consistent  with  a  thorough  training 
for  the  occupation  or  trade  to  be  learned.  .  .  .  The  shop  work 
must  be  conducted  on  a  productive  or  commercial  basis.  .  .  . 

It  should  be  clear  that  these  conditions  cannot  be 
found  except  in  a  few  isolated  cases  and  that  the  needs 
of  the  great  mass  of  industrial  workers  cannot  be  met 
under  these  severe  restrictions.  It  is  not  strange  that 
communities,  at  first  enthusiastic  over  the  prospects  of 
establishing  an  industrial  school  or  class,  finally  give  up 
in  despair,  and,  being  refused  state  aid  for  things  which 


32  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

they  need,  decide  that  no  action  is  desirable  at  the 
time.  As  claimed  above,  the  law,  or  its  interpretation, 
acts  as  a  deterrent  to  the  "natural"  growth  of  indus- 
trial education. 

The  formulation  of  exact  definitions  of  the  several 
types  of  vocational  education  would  never  have  been 
given  such  prominence  had  not  the  demand  for  a  sep- 
aration of  cultural  and  vocational  courses  been  brought 
into  the  discussion  so  persistently.  We  contend  that 
complete  separation  between  vocational  and  general 
education  is  both  unnecessary  and  undesirable.  While 
recognizing  the  fact  that,  for  purposes  of  theoretical 
analysis,  such  separation  is  imperative  and  is  conducive 
to  clear  thinking  and  definiteness  of  aim,  in  practice  the 
two  are  rarely  to  be  so  clearly  distinguished.  Further- 
more, the  combination  of  these  two  elements  is  both 
natural  and  inevitable.  The  difference  in  result  between 
a  vocational  and  non-vocational  class  or  subject  is  often 
merely  a  matter  of  emphasis.  In  actual  practice  there 
never  has  been  an  industrial  school  which  did  not  give 
work  which  contributed  both  to  the  pupil's  general 
equipment  and  to  his  special  vocational  training.  The 
two  are  never  found  apart,  but  always  in  combination, 
sometimes  one  predominating  and  sometimes  the  other, 
but  neither  ever  wholly  wanting. 

So  one  is  almost  inclined  to  ask  whether,  if  state  aid 
is  to  be  had  only  at  the  cost  of  dividing  or  separating 
the  two  necessary  parts  of  the  whole,  —  culture  and 
economic  efficiency,  —  it  might  not  be  better  to  forego 
state  aid  altogether  and  to  find  some  other  way  to  stim- 
ulate the  growth  of  this  new  form  of  popular  education 
of  which  society  stands  so  much  in  need.  In  other  words, 
may  it  not  be  better  to  find  some  way  of  hastening  and 


A  LOCAL  QUESTION  33 

strengthening  the  movement  in  education  which  we 
have  already  discussed,  and  which  we  have  called  the 
"natural"  growth  of  industrial  education? 

The  "more  excellent  way"  is  to  convince  educators, 
by  every  available  means,  of  the  great  educational  and 
vocational  need  of  the  unprogressive  pupils  in  the  upper 
elementary  and  lower  high-school  grades.  The  work 
already  done  in  prevocational  and  general  industrial 
classes  for  such  children  has  demonstrated  beyond  a 
doubt  that  these  children  are  not  necessarily  less  able 
to  get  an  education  or  less  worthy  of  being  educated, 
but  frequently  are  merely  strongly  individualistic  and 
lacking  in  power  of  adjustment  to  the  present  system. 

When  the  excellent  and  lovable  personal  character- 
istics of  these  pupils  have  once  become  apparent  to  the 
students  of  education,  and  when  society  shall  have 
demanded  that  our  schools  address  themselves  to  the 
peculiar  educational  problems  presented  by  these  in- 
dividuals, there  can  be  no  question  of  the  ability  of 
American  educators  to  find  a  solution  of  all  the  edu- 
cational problems  which  their  cases  present.  | 

As  above  noted,  educators  have  already  made  much  / 
more  progress  toward  the  ultimate  solution  of  these 
problems  than  is  generally  believed.  There  is  every 
indication  that  with  all  the  intelligent  and  sympathetic  , 
study  which  is  now  being  given  to  the  subject  the  pub- 
lic schools  will  rapidly  adjust  themselves  to  meet  this 
new  social  and  educational  demand. 

While  urging  the  regeneration  and  amplification  of 
the  regular  public-school  system,  we  should  not  over- 
look the  great  value  of  the  excellent  work  which  has 
been  done  and  which  will  continue  to  be  done  by  the 
newer  types  of  schools  separately  organized  or  main- 


34  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

tained  for  giving  various  forms  of  vocational  educa- 
tion. 

One  of  the  most  far-reaching  effects  of  such  separate 
schools  or  systems  will  be  found  in  their  reflex  action 
on  the  public-school  system  as  a  whole.  Perhaps  we 
need,  for  example,  such  excellent  demonstrations  of  a 
state-wide  campaign  for  the  education  of  the  fifty  per 
cent  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  continuation  schools  of 
Wisconsin.  A  close  study  of  these  schools  will  demon- 
strate more  and  more  clearly  the  particulars  in  which 
the  regular  school  system  has  failed  and  will  thereby 
indicate  lines  along  which  it  must  strengthen  its  work. 
For  example,  in  her  continuation  schools  Wisconsin  is 
giving  to  the  children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen 
years  of  age,  the  vast  majority  of  whom  have  been 
"eliminated"  from  the  public  schools  before  graduating 
from  the  elementary  grades,  the  manual  training  and 
simplified  academic  work  which  these  pupils  should 
have  had  two  years  before.  Wisconsin  is  doing  well  to 
supply  such  instruction  to  these  children  now,  but  the 
State  will  eventually  come  to  see  that  such  work  as  is 
now  being  done  in  the  continuation  schools  must  be 
done  in  the  grades,  leaving  the  continuation  schools 
free  to  do  a  much  larger  and  more  extended  work  than 
is  possible  while  the  regular  school  system  remains  as 
it  is  to-day. 

The  Wisconsin  continuation  schools  have  taught  us 
nothing  regarding  the  methods  of  educating  these  chil- 
dren between  fourteen  and  sixteen  that  had  not  been 
demonstrated  with  absolute  certainty  by  prevocational 
schools  in  other  places,  which  schools,  as  was  shown  in 
the  previous  chapter,  were  the  logical  and  natural 
outgrowth  of  the  regular  school  system.  The  Wisconsin 


A  LOCAL  QUESTION  35 

plan,  however,  has  done  a  great  service  to  the  cause  of 
education  by  collecting  in  one  group,  or  at  least  by 
bringing  under  one  general  management,  several  thou- 
sands of  these  retarded  and  eliminated  children  in  such 
a  way  that  an  intensive  study  may  be  made  of  their 
needs,  capacities,  and  possibilities. 

Further  study  will  undoubtedly  show  that  all  at- 
tempts to  establish  schools  for  these  children  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen,  whether  within  or  outside  of  the 
regular  school  system,  are,  as  previously  stated,  but 
phases  of  the  gradual  progress  which  society  is  making 
toward  universal  education.  To  be  educated,  —  that 
is  the  desired  end,  —  and  this  is  the  means  by  which  a 
group,  until  now  generally  overlooked  by  our  schools, 
is  to  be  educated.  As  before  shown,  the  education  will 
be  both  specific  and  general,  both  vocational  and  cul- 
tural, but  the  purpose  is,  first,  last,  and  always,  educa- 
tion without  any  qualifying  adjectives  whatsoever. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  point  out  that  the  natural 
growth  of  popular  education  will  be  stimulated  when 
all  educators  become  intelligent  students  of  the  methods 
and  purposes  of  the  newly  organized  vocational  and 
prevocational  schools  and  classes  of  whatever  type,  and 
when  they  seek  to  inject  into  the  present  school  system 
as  much  as  may  be  of  the  vitality  and  directness  of  these 
new  schools.  When  such  study  on  the  part  of  educators 
shall  have  become  general,  it  is  not  too  much  to  hope 
that  the  confidence  which  is  born  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  successful  work  of  these  new  schools  will  speedily 
take  effect  in  our  regular  school  system.  "  Strong  action 
can  issue  only  from  strong  faith.  Only  out  of  certainty 
comes  power." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   INAUGURATION   OF   PREVOCATIONAL   CLASSES 

When  the  school  authorities  in  any  community  have 
become  thoroughly  interested  in  the  possibilities  of 
introducing  prevocational  work,  certain  vital  questions 
invariably  present  themselves.  Do  the  conditions  in 
the  community  really  demand  the  establishment  of 
prevocational  classes?  In  what  way  are  the  pupils  to 
be  selected?  What  should  be  the  nature  of  the  course 
of  study  offered?  What  type  or  types  of  vocational 
work  should  be  included?  Where  are  the  right  kind  of 
teachers  to  be  found  or  how  may  they  be  trained? 

The  foregoing  questions  are  all  fundamentally  im- 
portant and  are  universal,  but  the  answers  to  these  and 
to  other  questions  peculiarly  appropriate  to  a  particular 
community  can  be  satisfactorily  given  only  after  a  sur- 
vey has  been  made  of  the  local  conditions  both  educa- 
tional and  vocational.  Though  the  questions  are  essen- 
tially the  same  for  all  localities,  the  answers  to  them 
may,  in  fact  must,  differ  widely  in  the  case  of  different 
cities.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  present  what 
may  be  called  a  survey  of  some  typical  community  to- 
gether with  suggestions  as  to  how  to  meet  the  situation 
revealed  by  the  facts  thus  ascertained. 

On  visiting  almost  any  elementary  school  one  is  sure 
to  be  impressed  with  the  number  of  over-aged  children 
in  the  upper  grades,  especially  in  grades  six  and  seven. 
Two  questions  to  which  answers  should  be  sought  are, 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  37 

first,  How  many  such  children  are  to  be  found  in  the 
school  system?  Second,  What  explanation  can  be  given 
of  their  retardation  collectively  and  individually? 

Undoubtedly  we  shall  find  in  our  community  certain 
cases  where  the  lack  of  progress  of  the  individual  pupil 
is  in  no  wise  to  be  charged  to  the  school.  Illness,  con- 
stant migration  from  school  to  school  or  from  city  to 
city,  or  much  enforced  absence  may  be  given  as  ex- 
amples of  causes  for  which  the  school  is  not  responsible. 
One  prevocational  boy  writes,  "I  am  no  further  along 
in  school  because  I  have  went  to  five  different  schools, 
and  every  one  that  I  went  to  they  put  me  back  a  half 
a  grade."  In  such  instances  it  is  commonly  urged  by  the 
school  management  that,  since  it  is  in  no  way  respon- 
sible for  the  cause  of  the  retardation,  the  school  should 
not  be  expected  to  remedy  the  difficulty  or  to  minimize 
its  baneful  effect.  The  individual  fits  a  certain  grade, 
so  far  as  accomplishment  is  concerned,  therefore  what 
more  could  be  asked  than  that  he  be  permitted  to  do 
his  work  in  it?  The  fact  that  he  is  three  years  older  and 
several  inches  taller  than  the  majority  of  the  pupils  in 
the  class  has  not  been  considered  seriously. 

In  addition  to  these  children  others  are  likely  to  be 
found  who  have  been  regularly  in  attendance  since 
entering  school  at  five  or  six  years  of  age,  but  who, 
nevertheless,  are  two  or  three  years  behind  grade.  Some 
of  these  may  be  subnormal.  If  they  are,  they  do  not 
fall  properly  within  the  present  study,  but  should  be 
cared  for  by  special  methods  now  well  understood. 

Among  the  remaining  retarded  pupils  will  be  found 
some  who  have  been  " troublesome,' '  others  who  are 
"slow,"  "uninterested,"  or  "inattentive,"  —  pupils 
who  simply  will  not  "apply  themselves."    Frequently 


38  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

no  better  explanation  can  be  given  by  the  teachers  than 
those  above  mentioned.  But  whatever  may  be  the  ex- 
planation, there  are  far  too  many  children  who  have 
no  reasonable  hope  of  completing  the  elementary 
grades  before  they  have  reached  the  termination  of 
their  school  life  even  though  it  be  extended  to  their  six- 
teenth or  seventeenth  year.  It  is  even  possible  to  find 
principals  who  are  willing  to  state  that  certain  children 
never  could  complete  the  work  of  the  grades  even  if 
they  had  several  years  in  which  to  make  the  attempt. 

These  pupils,  together  with  the  group  first  mentioned, 
are  fit  candidates  for  our  prevocational  class  or  depart- 
ment, but  our  information  concerning  them  is  not  yet 
sufficient.  What  may  be  called  a  social  study  of  the 
several  individuals  should  be  made. 

The  reason  for  making  this  social  survey  is  that  we 
must  recognize  financial  limitations  and  parental  re- 
sponsibility and  authority,  and  we  must  ascertain  what 
plans  the  parent  is  making  for  the  child's  further  edu- 
cation. "How  much  longer  are  you  planning  to  send 
John  to  school  ?"  may  sound  impertinent  if  the  ques- 
tion is  presented  thus  bluntly,  yet  it  must  be  seen  that 
the  educational  program  of  a  thirteen-  or  fourteen-year- 
old  boy  ought  to  be  radically  affected  by  the  knowledge 
that  he  is  to  be  taken  out  of  school  and  put  to  work  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  In  most  instances  where  such  a 
social  investigation  is  made  sympathetically  there  will 
be  found  a  considerable  number  of  children  of  whom  it 
can  be  stated  with  certainty  that  their  school  years  are 
numbered  and  that  the  extent  of  them  can  be  accurately 
determined  by  consulting  the  parents. 

When  seriously  retarded  children  are  nearing  the  age 
at  which  they  are  permitted  by  law  to  go  to  work,  and 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  39 

when  their  parents  state  that  it  is  their  intention  to  put 
the  children  to  work  as  soon  as  possible,  such  children 
should  be  given  prevocational  work.  This  should  be 
done  even  if  retardation  is  the  result  of  a  faulty  school 
system,  for  remedying  the  system  will  not  help  these 
individuals  now,  and  their  need  should  plead  their  cause 
strongly,  —  a  cause  which  demands  immediate  action. 

It  is  desirable,  however,  to  make  further  inquiry  into 
the  peculiar  organization  and  practices  of  the  school  in 
question.  By  so  doing,  the  characteristics  of  the  retarded 
children  may  be  more  clearly  revealed,  thus  making  it 
possible  to  care  for  the  individual  cases  more  successfully. 
It  is  furthermore  desirable  to  make  this  inquiry  in  order 
to  prevent  the  continuance  of  such  methods  as  have 
resulted  in  the  retardation  of  wholly  normal  children. 

For  example,  it  is  important  to  know  how  seriously 
the  principal  and  teachers  take  the  "graded  system." 
Are  promotions  made  by  averages?  Are  pupils  required 
to  repeat  whole  grades  because  they  have  failed  in  one 
or  two  subjects?  Are  standings  based  on  examinations? 
Is  knowledge  of  certain  definite  facts  held  to  be  of  such 
importance  that  failure  to  memorize  them  is  considered 
a  sufficient  reason  for  repeating  the  grade?  In  other 
words,  is  the  system  held  in  greater  respect  than  the 
child?  Or  are  instances  similar  to  the  following  likely  to 
be  found?  A  girl  failed  in  a  certain  grade  and  was  re- 
fused promotion.  Being  fourteen  years  of  age  she  de- 
cided to  go  to  work  rather  than  to  repeat  the  grade.  She 
was  given  permission  to  sit  in  the  advanced  grade*during 
the  year,  and  at  the  end  of  it  she  passed  the  examinations 
of  both  grades  successfully.  This  incident  could  never 
have  been  reported  from  some  schools.  Would  it  be 
possible  in  our  typical  system? 


40  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Coupled  with  these  investigations,  the  educational 
and  social,  there  should  be  made  also  an  industrial  or 
vocational  survey.  That  is  to  say,  a  careful  study  of  the 
occupational  opportunities  open  to  these  children  is 
pertinent  to  the  whole  problem.  There  is  an  instance  on 
record  of  an  elementary  school,  situated  just  across  the 
street  from  a  large  industrial  plant,  where  there  are  no 
children  above  the  sixth  grade  merely  because  the  lure 
of  the  industrial  occupation,  with  its  five  or  six  dollars 
a  week,  is  too  strong  for  the  school  interests  to  resist 
successfully. 

It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  there  is 
a  considerable  difference  between  prevocational  work 
and  genuine  industrial  education  in  this  one  particular. 
Dr.  Leonard  P.  Ayres,  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
in  his  "study  of  certain  facts  concerning  all  of  the 
thirteen-year-old  boys  in  the  public  schools  of  seventy- 
eight  American  cities  and  the  fathers  of  the  boys,"  has 
shown  that  industrial  education  need  not  be  limited 
to  training  for  occupations  offered  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  since  working-people  move  about  considerably 
and  are  rarely  found  living  in  the  city  where  they  were 
educated.  With  prevocational  work,  however,  the 
question  is  somewhat  different,  since  it  is  the  purpose 
of  such  work  to  modify  the  influence  which  the  early 
occupational  years  have  on  the  young  worker,  and  these 
early  years  are  almost  certain  to  be  spent  in  the  indus- 
tries found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  school.  Numerous 
personal  investigations  have  revealed  the  truth  of  this 
statement,  and  children  who  have  left  a  given  school 
to  go  to  work  are  almost  sure  to  be  found  in  an  adjoin- 
ing cigar  factory  or  textile  mill  or  other  industrial  plant. 
For  that  reason  it  is  highly  desirable,  in  our  vocational 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  41 

survey,  to  make  careful  note  of  the  occupational  oppor- 
tunities which  exist  in  the  immediate  vicinity  for  chil- 
dren who  leave  school  between  fourteen  and  sixteen 
years  of  age.  Where  no  such  opportunities  exist  (and 
there  are  such  places  to  be  found),  the  problem  of  pre- 
vocational  work  is  greatly  modified  by  that  fact. 

As  illustrative  of  such  a  situation  may  be  cited  the 
example  of  a  large  residential  city  where  there  is  but 
one  small  industrial  plant,  and  where  not  more  than 
ninety  work  certificates  have  been  issued  in  a  period 
of  three  years. 

The  word  "survey"  has  been  used  here,  and  perhaps 
deserves  a  word  of  comment.  In  recent  years  several 
notable  examples  of  school  surveys  have  come  to  the 
attention  of  educators  generally.  One  of  the  most  re- 
cent is  that  which  has  been  conducted  by  the  National 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Education  at 
Richmond,  Virginia. 

Commenting  on  this  survey,  a  bulletin  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  gives  the  following :  — 

A  Municipal  Inventory 

To  what  extent  can  the  worker  "get  on"  in  his  job?  To 
what  extent  can  the  city's  industries  give  special  training 
which  they  do  not  now  provide?  To  what  extent  can  the 
schools  be  a  factor  in  preparing  for  vocations? 

These  very  important  questions  the  city  of  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, is  making  an  organized  effort  to  answer  for  herself. 
Richmond  has  requested  a  commission  of  experts  to  make  an 
industrial  and  educational  survey  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing full  information  concerning  the  principal  occupations, 
especially  those  in  which  young  people  are  employed,  in  order 
to  formulate  plans  for  improving  the  opportunities  for  train- 
ing and  preparation  for  those  occupations  for  which  such 
training  is  practicable.  This  survey  was  begun  the  1st  of  May, 
1914,  and  is  to  be  finished  by  the  15th  of  October. 


42  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  local  forces  behind  the  survey  include  the  Board  of 
Education,  Board  of  Trustees  of  Virginia  Mechanics'  Insti- 
tute, Business  Men's  Club,  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Rotary 
Club,  Central  Trades  and  Labor  Council,  Metal  Trades  Coun- 
cil, besides  a  number  of  employers'  associations. 

The  findings  of  the  survey  and  the  recommendations  of  the 
committee  are  to  furnish  the  basis  of  discussion  at  the  prin- 
cipal sessions  of  the  next  annual  convention  of  the  National 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Education,  to  be  held 
in  Richmond,  December  9-12,  1914.  There  will  be  assembled 
at  the  convention  the  leading  authorities  on  industrial  and 
vocational  education  from  the  entire  United  States,  who  will 
study  and  pass  upon  the  proposals,  and  recommend  those 
forms  of  education  which  it  is  believed  it  will  be  to  Rich- 
mond's advantage  to  carry  out. 

As  used  in  our  discussion,  however,  the  word  "sur- 
vey" is  not  intended  to  indicate  that  such  an  elaborate 
inventory  need  be  made  or  that  it  is  necessary  to  em- 
ploy a  large  body  of  educational  and  industrial  experts. 
It  is  believed  that  a  little  sincere  self-examination  on 
the  part  of  any  school  administration,  if  made  sym- 
pathetically and  with  the  desire  to  discover  and  to 
remedy  any  of  the  unfortunate  conditions  which  are 
susceptible  of  improvement,  will  result  in  much  genuine 
progress  and  frequently  in  the  organization  of  success- 
ful prevocational  courses. 

In  our  typical  community  let  us  say  that  we  have 
found  the  usual  amount  of  retardation;  that  we  have 
been  able  to  ascertain  that  a  small  but  considerable 
percentage  of  children  are  planning  to  leave  school  at 
the  earliest  opportunity  with  the  full  approval  of  their 
parents;  that  certain  low-grade  industrial  occupations 
are  open  to  them,  together  with  the  usual  messenger 
service  and  odd  jobs  common  to  almost  every  com- 
munity. The  question  then  arises  as  to  the  method  of 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  43 

organizing  and  conducting  prevocational  work  in  such 
a  way  as  to  better  materially  the  education  of  these 
children. 

It  will  be  seen  that  our  problem  is  one  of  adjustment 
between  the  children,  their  educational  possibilities,  the 
teachers,  the  peculiar  traditions  of  the  school  in  ques- 
tion, and  the  general  nature  of  the  work  which  the  chil- 
dren will  probably  do  if  they  leave  school  without  some 
special  training. 

The  school  superintendent  who  urges  upon  his  board 
of  education  or  upon  his  teachers  the  formation  of  a  pre- 
vocational class  is  likely  to  be  confronted  with  one  or 
more  of  the  following  questions :  On  what  basis  shall  we 
select  the  children  for  these  classes?  Have  we  a  right  to 
distinguish  between  the  children  of  the  rich  and  the 
poor?  Who  shall  determine  whether  or  not  a  given  child 
shall  leave  the  regular  class  and  enter  the  prevocational 
class?  Would  not  the  parent  object  to  the  segregation  of 
his  child  from  the  school  body  in  general?  May  we  not 
actually  prevent  some  children  from  "going  on,"  — 
from  getting  a  "good  education,"  —  by  deflecting 
them  from  the  traditional  courses? 

Answers  to  these  questions,  in  order  to  be  convincing, 
must  be  derived  from  actual  experience,  and  it  is  with 
full  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  selection,  of  the  general 
satisfaction  of  both  parents  and  pupils  with  the  mod- 
ified work  of  the  prevocational  classes  and  of  the  success 
of  prevocational  work  in  general  that  the  following  sug- 
gestions are  confidently  made. 

The  plans  for  the  prevocational  class  should  be  as 
carefully  worked  out  as  possible,  and  fully  explained  to 
the  principals  of  the  various  elementary  schools  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  their  cooperation.    The  principals 


44  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

should  be  urged  to  select,  with  the  knowledge  and  ap- 
proval of  the  parents,  only  those  children  for  whom  the 
class  is  thoroughly  appropriate.  Before  being  asked  to 
give  their  approval  the  parents  should  be  informed  of 
the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  prevocational  work  to  be 
offered  and  of  the  benefits  which  may  come  to  the  chil- 
dren from  entering  the  class.  They  should  be  told  as 
candidly  as  possible,  and  by  way  of  comparison,  just 
what  prospects  the  pupil  has  if  he  remains  in  the  regular 
class.  They  should  be  shown  that  the  prevocational 
class  is  an  important  part  of  the  school  system,  and  that 
it  does  not  prevent  a  pupil  from  reaching  high  school, 
although  it  is  not  the  primary  purpose  of  these  classes 
to  give  preparation  for  it.  These  facts  clearly  presented 
to  the  parents  should  form  the  basis  on  which  they 
decide  the  question.  Experience  has  shown  that  where 
the  matter  is  talked  over  thus  frankly,  the  parents  will 
almost  invariably  decide  in  favor  of  the  prevocational 
work.  After  the  classes  have  been  in  operation  for  two 
or  three  years,  and  the  methods  and  purpose  of  such 
work  firmly  established,  parents  will  be  influenced  in 
their  judgment  by  the  desires  of  the  children  themselves 
and  by  the  testimony  of  other  parents  whose  children 
have  had  successful  experience  in  the  new  classes. 

Following  are  examples  of  circulars  which  have  been 
issued  for  the  information  of  principals,  parents,  or  the 
public  generally  regarding  the  selection  of  children  for 
prevocational  classes.  One  from  Boston  related  to  a 
new  prevocational  center  just  organized.  This  was 
issued  by  the  Assistant  Director  of  Manual  Arts1  who 
is  in  direct  charge  of  the  prevocational  work,  and  was 
intended  merely  for  the  information  of  the  principals  in 
1  Now  Associate  Director  of  Manual  Arts. 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  45 

one  district.  Although  prevocational  work  had  been  a 
feature  of  the  Boston  public  schools  for  six  years  when 
this  circular  appeared,  it  was  not  taken  for  granted  that 
every  one  was  fully  informed  regarding  the  purpose  of 
the  work.  The  circular  follows. 

Boston  Public  Schools 
Department  of  Manual  Arts 

September  20,  1913. 
To  Principals  of  Districts  in  the  Neighborhood  of  the  Mather 
District :  — 
As  you  know,  there  has  been  established  in  the  Lyceum 
Hall  an  additional  prevocational  center.  For  the  size,  general 
character,  length  of  sessions,  and  other  information,  please  see 
Minutes  of  May  26,  1913.  The  course  of  study  will  be  some- 
what similar  to  that  laid  out  for  the  other  prevocational  cen- 
ters (please  see  Minutes  of  February  19,  1912),  although  the 
time  for  the  academic  branches  will  be  increased  as  the  day  is 
to  be  a  six-hour  day,  without  home  study;  the  shop  work  will 
be  given  nine  hours  per  week. 

Two  of  the  classes  are  in  operation,  and  there  will  be  oppor- 
tunity for  several  boys  from  your  district  to  enter  the  third 
class  which  is  being  organized.  The  kind  of  boys  who  should 
be  considered  are  first  those  who  are  retarded  academically, 
while  having  some  facility  with  their  hands,  and  who  need 
special  attention  and  increased  constructive  stimulus  to  enable 
them  to  graduate  within  a  reasonable  time,  and,  second,  nor- 
mal members  of  the  three  upper  grades  who  do  not  intend  to 
remain  in  school  after  the  age  of  fourteen  or  graduation,  and 
who  expect  to  enter  the  trades. 
This  center  is  intended  to 

(a)  Put  into  operation  before  the  age  of  fourteen  an  influ- 
ence which  may  prolong  school  life^beyond  fourteen. 
(6)  Enable  some  retarded  boys  to  graduate  earlier  than 
under  present  circumstances. 

(c)  Awaken  in  certain  boys  a  desire  for  an  industrial  career, 
and  offer  definite  opportunity  for  vocational  guidance 
therein. 

(d)  Point  to  the  Boston  Industrial  School  or  the  Mechanic 


46  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Arts  High  School  after  graduation  rather  than  to  the 
street  or  to  some  blind-alley  occupation. 
(e)  Afford  some  definite  preparation  for  boys  who  do  finally 

go  to  work  at  fourteen. 
The  class  will  be  divided  into  A,  B,  and  C  divisions  roughly 
corresponding  with  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades,  and 
the  lowest  division  will  certainly,  and  the  other  two  divisions 
probably,  have  an  equal  amount  of  training  in  each  of  the 
three  shops  before  graduation. 

Each  of  the  three  classrooms  is  to  be  closely  associated  with 
some  one  shop,  and  all  of  the  English,  Mathematics,  History, 
and  Geography  is  to  be  based  upon  the  work  of  the  particular 
shop  associated  with  the  classroom.  When  a  boy  changes  his 
shop  he  will  change  his  classroom. 

If  you  have  any  candidates  for  this  center,  will  you  kindly 
send  me  their  names  at  an  early  date  with  a  short  state- 
ment concerning  each  candidate,  giving  grade,  age,  ability  in 
manual  training,  general  academic  ability,  and  deportment. 
While  the  center  is  in  no  sense  disciplinary,  there  is  no  objec- 
tion to  sending  to  it  a  boy  whose  conduct  has  been  unsatis- 
factory because  he  was  not  profiting  by  his  present  course  of 
study.  If  you  send  me  the  names  of  any  candidates  I  will 
notify  you  when  the  new  class  will  be  ready  to  receive  them. 
Very  truly  yours, 

John  C.  Brodhead, 
Assistant  Director  of  Manual  Arts. 

The  following  circular  from  Chicago  marks  one  of  the 
most  important  steps  in  the  development  of  prevoca- 
tional  work,  namely,  its  entry  into  the  precincts  of  the 
high  school.  Here  these  classes  use  the  high-school 
building  and  the  high-school  equipment.  While  the 
term  "pre vocational"  appears  only  incidentally  in  the 
text,  and  not  at  the  head  of  the  circular,  these  classes 
in  all  of  the  high  schools  are  called  "  Prevocational 
Classes."  A  new  feature  of  these  classes  was  developed 
in  1914  in  the  Lane  Technical  High  School,  when  it  was 
decided  that  any  prevocational  boy  might  be  promoted 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  47 

by  subjects.  A  boy  may  now  be  regularly  enrolled  as  a 
high-school  boy  in  one  subject  while  pursuing  other 
subjects  as  a  part  of  the  prevocational  class.  This  marks 
the  full  development  of  the  sympathetic  attention  which 
is  being  given  to  the  needs  of  these  individual  pupils. 
The  circular  shows  the  process  of  selecting  the  boys. 

Board  of  Education 
City  of  Chicago 

Office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Schools 
Department  of  Examinations 

Examination  for  Boys  and  Girls  Who  Wish  to  Take  Intensive 
Industrial  Elementary  Course 
On  Monday,  June  16,  1913,  there  will  be  held  an  examina- 
tion for  the  following  classes  of  pupils  whose  parents  desire  to 
have  them  take  an  intensive  industrial  elementary  course :  — 

1.  Boys  in  the  sixth  grade  who  are  fourteen  years  old  and 
over. 

2.  Girls  in  the  sixth  grade  and  upper  fifth  (5A)  who  are 
fourteen  years  old  and  over. 

3.  Boys  and  girls  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  who  are 
fifteen  years  of  age  and  over. 

The  course  for  boys  will  be  given  at  the  Lane  Technical 
High  School,  the  Lake  Technical  High  School,  and  the  Crane 
Technical  High  School,  and  will  consist  of  mathematics,  me- 
chanical drawing,  English,  history,  physiology  and  geogra- 
phy. 

The  course  for  girls  will  be  given  at  the  Lucy  Flower  High 
School,  and  will  consist  of  cooking,  hand  and  machine-sewing,  f 
the  running  of  power  machines,  English,  art,  physiology  and  j 
hygiene,  mathematics,  history,  music,  and  physical  education,  j 
Special  attention  will  be  paid  to  the  needs  of  those  pupils  who 
must  become  self-supporting  within  a  short  time. 

The  examination  for  boys  will  be  held  at  the  Lane  Techni- 
cal High  School,  the  Crane  Technical  High  School,  and  the 
Lake  Technical  High  School,  on  Monday,  June  16,  and  will 
begin  at  1.40  p.m. 

The  examination  for  girls  will  be  held  at  the  Lewis-Cham- 


48  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

plain  School,  the  Medill  Grammar  School,  and  the  Franklin 
School,  on  Monday,  June  16,  and  will  begin  at  9  a.m. 

Principals  and  teachers  will  please  give  time  to  a  full  dis- 
cussion of  this  subject  with  the  pupils  and  their  parents  so 
that  no  mistake  may  be  made  through  the  impression  that 
this  course  will  be  a  short-cut  to  the  high  school.  The  work 
will  be  what  might  be  termed  "pre vocational."  This  is  not 
an  effort  to  take  the  pupils  out  of  the  upper  elementary  grades; 
it  is  an  effort  to  give  the  best  work  possible  to  young  people 
from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age  who  are  not  likely  to 
pursue  a  high  school  course.  At  the  same  time,  the  pupil  who 
completes  the  elementary  work  satisfactorily  may  be  admitted 
to  the  Technical  High  Schools. 

If  any  of  the  pupils  of  your  school  who  meet  these  require- 
ments desire  to  attend  the  examination,  you  will  please  fill 
out  for  each  one  a  blank,  which  will  be  sent  you.  This  blank 
will  serve  as  a  card  of  admission  and  should  be  presented  at 
the  school  at  the  time  of  examination. 

Please  to  notify  the  examiner  on  enclosed  blank  not  later 
than  June  Q  of  the  number  of  your  pupils  who  will  take  this 
examination. 

Ella  Flagg  Young, 

Superintendent  of  Schools. 

Of  a  somewhat  more  general  nature  is  the  plan  de- 
scribed in  the  following  instructive  circular  from 
Seattle:  — 

Seattle  Public  Schools 

Elementary  Prevocational  Courses  of  Study 

The  establishment  of  industrial,  or  prevocational,  courses 
of  study  in  several  of  the  elementary  schools  was  authorized 
by  the  Board  of  Directors  several  years  ago.  The  classes  or- 
ganized in  these  new  courses  have  been  very  successful.  Re- 
ports received  indicate  that  pupils  have  shown  a  greatly 
increased  interest  in  school,  and  have  done  work  of  a  higher 
rank  than  ever  before. 

These  courses  of  study  relate  much  more  to  the  industries 
for  the  boys,  and  to  household  arts  for  the  girls,  than  the 
ordinary  school  course.    Many  parents  desire  to  give  their 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  49 

children  the  advantage  of  taking  a  course  of  study  that  pro- 
vides for  a  training  in  the  practice  of  these  useful  occupations 
and  a  study  of  their  economic  and  efficient  application  in  life. 
They  believe  that  such  a  course  will  furnish  a  much  more 
satisfactory  preparation  for  the  duties  of  life  than  that 
afforded  by  the  regular  academic  course.  It  will  also  furnish 
an  adequate  preparation  for  a  higher  education. 

In  every  school  there  are  some  boys  and  girls  who  prefer 
studies  and  exercises  that  employ  their  hands,  and  who  have 
greater  aptitude  in  such  studies  than  their  fellows.  They 
advance  in  their  development  by  what  they  do  rather  than 
by  what  they  hear.  They  are  practical-minded.  Many  such 
children  drop  out  of  school  as  soon  as  the  law  permits,  not 
from  lack  of  ability,  but  because  the  school  fails  to  fit  its  pro- 
cedure to  their  particular  needs.  The  establishment  of  these 
classes  in  industrial  arts  is  an  attempt  to  fit  the  school  to  the 
wants  of  this  class  of  pupils. 

These  new  courses  of  study  also  provide  a  more  practical 
prevocational  training  for  a  class  of  boys  and  girls  iri  the 
public  schools  who  will  receive  the  greatest  benefit  from  in- 
struction which  will  the  soonest  prepare  them  for  training  in 
a  definite  vocation.  Such  industrial  classes  are  not  substi- 
tutes for  a  trade  school,  but  for  those  who  desire  it  they  will 
lead  more  quickly  and  surely  to  apprenticeship  in  business  or 
trade  than  the  regular  classes,  while  those  pupils  who  desire 
to  continue  their  study,  either  in  the  high  school  or  special 
schools,  are  prepared  to  do  so. 

The  school  day  is  five  hours,  which  is  the  same  as  for  other 
grade-school  classes.  Three  hours  of  this  time  are  spent  upon 
the  ordinary  school  studies,  modified  to  suit  the  end  aimed  at 
in  this  plan,  and  two  hours  are  devoted  to  the  industrial  and 
household  arts  —  shopwork  and  mechanical  drawing  for  the 
boys;  cookery,  sewing,  design  and  drawing  for  the  girls. 

Separate  classes  are  provided  for  boys  and  girls  because  of 
the  difference  between  their  courses. 

Outline  and  Explanation  of  Industrial  Arts  Courses  of  Study 
For  boys 

English  Mechanical  Drawing 

Geography-History  Shopwork 

Arithmetic 


50  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

For  girls 

English  Drawing  and  Design 

Geography-History  Sewing 

Arithmetic  Cookery 

English  will  include  reading,  spelling,  penmanship,  letter- 
writing  and  composition. 

Geography  will  include  studies  of  climatic  conditions  and 
influences,  industries  and  products,  exports  and  imports, 
routes  and  centers  of  trade;  the  studies  will  be  correlated  as 
far  as  practicable  with  the  work  in  shop  and  kitchen. 

In  History  there  will  be  a  review  of  the  influential  events 
in  the  development  of  our  country,  including  particular  refer- 
ence to  the  country's  greatest  characters  and  their  achieve- 
ments, and  to  the  causes  contributing  to  our  present  national 
standing.  The  purpose  will  be  to  give  an  elementary  knowl- 
edge of  the  important  facts  in  our  history,  and  to  imbue  with 
a  patriotic  desire  to  be  serviceable.  The  study  of  Civics  is 
included,  and  special  attention  is  given  to  local  civic  problems 
and  duties. 

In  Arithmetic  there  will  be  the  study  of  fundamental  opera- 
tions, including  fractions  applied  in  shopwork  and  in  other 
local  problems,  percentage  and  interest,  applications  of  meas- 
urements and  mensuration.  The  purpose  will  be  to  secure 
accuracy  in  the  use  of  figures  and  practice  in  their  application 
to  practical  affairs. 

Industrial.  The  shop  instruction  will  consist  of  work  in- 
tended to  give  knowledge  of  materials  and  their  sources  and 
uses;  tools  and  skill  in  their  use;  methods  of  construction; 
problems  in  machine  and  handwork;  acquaintance  with  fac- 
tory and  individual  production;  the  use  of  preservatives,  as 
paints,  oils,  etc.;  discussions  of  the  various  vocations;  visits 
to  work  under  construction,  and  to  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial establishments. 

The  industrial  work  for  girls  will  consist  of  plain  sewing, 
repairing,  garment  cutting  and  fitting;  the  study  of  house- 
hold linens,  and  other  fabrics  used  in  the  home;  the  use  of  the 
sewing-machine;  class  talks  and  discussions  regarding  cloth- 
ing, its  style,  cost,  methods  of  manufacture;  the  sweat-shop, 
trades  and  vocations  for  women;  hygiene  and  home  sanitation. 
There  will  also  be  the  study  of  plain  cooking,  properties  of 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  51 

foods,  economy,  table  service,  sanitation,  laundry  work,  care 
of  the  home,  etc.  Class  talks  upon  related  topics  of  home  life 
and  its  obligations,  domestic  service,  and  income  and  expen- 
diture will  be  a  feature  of  this  work. 

The  Relation  of  this  Course  to  the  High  School 
The  rank  of  these  courses  will  correspond  to  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades  of  the  usual  school  course,  and  will  require 
two  years  for  completion.  At  the  end  of  the  two  years  pupils 
completing  this  work,  who  choose  to  continue  their  school 
work,  may  enter  the  high  school  upon  an  equal  footing  with 
pupils  entered  from  the  regular  academic  course.  Pupils  who 
enter  high  school,  after  completing  satisfactorily  the  full  two 
years'  work  in  industrial  arts,  will  be  allowed  two  high-school 
credits.  Some  pupils  may  be  promoted  to  high  school  before 
they  have  finished  the  required  manual-arts  work,  because 
of  their  advancement  in  academic  subjects.  These  pupils  will 
be  entitled  to  one  credit  if  they  have  done  satisfactorily  three 
semesters'  work  in  the  manual  arts.  If  they  have  completed 
less  than  three  semesters'  work,  they  will  be  entitled  to  no 
advance  credit,  but  will  enter  high  school  on  the  same  basis 
as  pupils  from  the  regular  academic  courses.  Opportunity  will 
be  given  pupils  who  spend  less  than  two  years  in  this  course 
to  do  extra  work  after  three  o'clock,  in  shopwork  or  domestic 
science,  to  enable  them  to  earn  the  two  credits  before  pro- 
motion. 

Requirements  for  Admission 
This  course  is  open  to  any  boy  or  girl  thirteen  years  of  age 
or  over,  who  has  completed  the  equivalent  of  the  present  sixth 
grade,  provided  the  parent  or  guardian  makes  a  written  re- 
quest that  the  pupil  take  the  industrial  course,  and  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  school  last  attended  by  the  pupil  approves  the 
request.  The  number  of  pupils  in  each  industrial  class  is 
limited  to  twenty-four  boys  or  twenty-four  girls. 

Application  for  Admission 

Do  you  wish  to  have 

enrolled  in  one  of  the  classes  taking  the  industrial  course  of 
study?  If  so,  please  sign  your  name  below  as  indicative 
of  your  desire,  detach  this  application,  and  return  it  to  the 


52  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

school.  Application  for  admission  to  any  class  cannot  be 
favorably  considered  after  the  number  enrolled  has  reached 
twenty-four. 

Yours  truly, 

Frank  B.  Cooper,  Superintendent. 
Parent  or  Guardian. 

Louisville,  Kentucky,  affords  an  example  of  extreme 
simplicity  and  purposefulness  in  the  organization  of 
this  work,  and  of  rigid  adherence  to  the  strictly  pre- 
vocational  nature  of  the  school.  A  paragraph  from  a 
circular  of  the  school  states :  — 

Only  thirty-two  children  could  be  satisfactorily  handled  in 
this  initial  class  of  prevocational  training.  They  were,  there- 
fore, carefully  selected  from  among  children  who  had  applied 
for  permits  to  work,  or  who  would  positively  leave  school 
within  a  year.  In  order  to  find  the  children  who  would  most 
immediately  benefit  by  the  training,  the  various  districts  of 
the  city  were  investigated,  and  a  factory  district  in  the  west- 
ern portion  of  the  city  was  selected.  Following  this  decision, 
the  homes  of  individual  children  were  visited,  and  their 
parents  interviewed.  No  child  was  permitted  to  enter  this 
class  if  there  was  any  intimation  on  the  part  of  the  parents 
that  further  schooling  was  considered  for  the  child.  Twenty- 
one  boys  and  eleven  girls  compose  the  class.1 

One  difficulty  which  will  almost  certainly  be  met  in 
any  city  of  considerable  size,  where  the  individual 
teachers  are  allowed  to  make  the  selections,  will  be  that, 
unless  thoroughly  informed  and  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  the  plan  of  prevocational  work,  teachers  will  select 
only  their  difficult  pupils,  those  who  are  troublesome  in 
discipline,  mentally  subnormal,  or  otherwise  found  to 
be  undesirable  for  the  regular  school  work.  One  super- 
intendent remarked  that  the  greatest  value  of  the  pre- 

1  The  second  year  of  the  school  (I914r-15)  the  number  was  in- 
creased to  eighty. 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES'  53 

vocational  class  was  the  relief  which  it  afforded  the  regu- 
lar teachers  by  eliminating  the  less  desirable  pupils. 
While  admitting  that  this  benefit  may  be  great,  it  should 
not  be  considered  a  determining  factor  in  the  problem 
of  selecting  children  for  prevocational  classes. 

This  leads  naturally  to  the  discussion  of  the  attitude 
of  the  teacher  and  of  the  school  management  generally 
toward  the  whole  matter. 

The  survey  of  our  typical  community  will  undoubt- 
edly show  that  a  majority  of  the  teachers  are  thoroughly 
in  sympathy  with  the  old  plan  of  grading,  holding  the 
opinion  that  the  system,  in  assigning  a  pupil  to  a  given 
grade,  is  evaluating  accurately  his  standing  in  com- 
parison with  his  fellows  and  his  actual  ability  to  do  the 
prescribed  work  of  that  grade.  In  other  words,  the 
teachers  will  be  entirely  confident  that  a  given  sixth- 
grade  boy  is  rightly  placed.  It  will  be  difficult  to  con- 
vince them  that  the  boy  might  do  the  work  of  the 
eighth  grade  just  as  well,  provided  some  opportunity 
could  be  given  him  to  overcome  the  difficulties  en- 
countered in  the  first  month.  An  occasional  teacher 
may  be  found  who  would  be  glad  to  promote  a  boy  on 
the  assumption  that  he  had  the  ability  to  do  the  work 
in  a  higher  grade  provided  the  teacher  could  "get  hold 
of  him,"  but,  with  the  vast  majority,  the  "system"  will 
be  held  in  high  repute  and  the  pupil  will  not  be  per- 
mitted to  do  any  of  the  work  in  grade  seven  until  he 
has  "completed  the  required  course  of  study"  for  grade 
six. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  teachers  themselves 
are  to  be  held  blameworthy  because  of  this  attitude. 
It  is  rather  that  conditions  have  forced  them  to  take 
the  traditional  point  of  view,  namely,  that  this  selec- 


54  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

tive  function  of  the  school  is  of  first  importance.  The 
teachers  are  forced  to  work  with  large  classes,  are  re- 
quired to  "get  results,"  to  prepare  for  the  next  grade 
such  children  as  have  the  requisite  ability  to  "go  on." 
They  are  obliged  to  use  every  means  at  their  disposal 
to  accomplish  the  ends  which  have  been  fixed  by  the 
authorities,  including  the  rigid  elimination  of  the  unfit. 
"These  are  the  survivals,"  said  a  school  principal  in 
showing  an  upper-grade  class  to  a  visitor.  It  is  perti- 
nent to  ask,  "What  have  they  survived?"  Many  grade 
teachers  would  be  glad  to  break  away  from  this  un- 
natural and  undemocratic  contest  and  to  conduct  the 
children  more  happily  along  paths  which  lead  to  more 
desirable  and  attainable  ends. 

The  tendency  in  prevocational  work  is  to  ignore  grad- 
ing as  far  as  possible  and  to  assume  that  each  individual 
is  competent  to  do  some  of  the  work  in  grades  much 
higher  than  that  in  which  he  is  listlessly  sitting,  gener- 
ally at  the  back  of  the  room,  with  little  or  nothing  to 
show  for  it  at  the  end  of  the  year.  It  cannot  be  stated 
too  strongly  that  the  attitude  of  the  school  manage- 
ment and  of  the  teaching  force  in  this  one  matter  of 
grading  is  of  first  importance  in  determining  whether 
or  not  prevocational  classes  are  needed  in  a  school 
system.  Instances  are  on  record  where  the  plan  of  pro- 
motion is  so  flexible  and  the  attitude  of  all  concerned  so 
sympathetic  toward  individual  needs  and  aptitudes 
that  there  is  little  reason  for  the  establishment  of  pre- 
vocational work.  These  schools  are  in  the  small  mi- 
nority at  present,  however,  and  the  rule  of  inflexible, 
rigid,  impersonal  grading  still  holds  and  therefore 
renders  necessary,  or  at  least  desirable,  the  organiza- 
tion of  prevocational  classes. 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  55 

Undoubtedly  the  typical  survey  will  demonstrate 
the  need  of  a  prevocational  class  and  also  will  show  the 
locality  in  which  it  should  be  organized.  It  should,  as 
well,  throw  some  light  on  the  problem  of  selecting  the 
teachers  and  the  principal  under  whose  immediate 
charge  the  work  is  to  be  carried  out.  The  characteris- 
tics of  prevocational  teachers  will  be  discussed  more 
specifically  in  a  later  chapter,  but  the  matter  is  men- 
tioned briefly  in  this  connection  because  one  purpose  of 
the  survey  should  be  to  discover  some  of  the  excellent 
and  specially  qualified  teachers  who  are  undoubtedly 
to  be  found  in  the  service.  The  selection  of  such  teach- 
ers will  affect  the  organization  of  the  work  vitally. 

There  should  be  at  least  two  teachers,  one  for  some 
form  of  constructive  handwork  and  the  other  for  the  so- 
called  "regular"  subjects  or  bookwork.  Even  if  the 
class  is  so  small  that  two  teachers  are  not  required,  so 
far  as  the  number  of  pupils  is  concerned,  it  is  desirable 
to  adopt  a  departmental  plan,  drawing  the  teachers, 
for  a  part  of  their  time,  from  other  classes.  Where  it  is 
possible  to  have  three  bookwork  teachers,  on  whole  or 
part  time,  such  an  arrangement  is  even  more  effective 
than  that  of  having  only  one  teacher  in  charge  of  the 
class.  For  example,  if  there  could  be  three  different 
teachers,  it  would  be  desirable  to  select  one  who  is 
extremely  fond  of  books  and  literature,  another  who 
enjoys  teaching  any  kind  of  mathematics,  and  a  third 
who  has  the  attitude  of  the  scientist,  who  likes  to  ex- 
amine material  and  to  do  things  with  it,  observing  and 
recording  results  and  ultimately  drawing  conclusions. 
All  these  teachers,  while  differing  in  professional  quali- 
fications, should  be  alike  in  that  they  recognize  as  per- 
nicious the  common  practice  of  grading  on  a  basis  of 


56  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

one  hundred  per  cent  without  reference  to  the  personal 
conditions  under  which  the  work  has  been  done;  in  that 
they  believe  in  the  public  school,  but  believe  even  more 
confidently  in  human  nature;  in  that  they  are  versatile, 
adaptable,  hopeful,  cheerful,  and  above  all  sympathetic 
with  the  children  whom  they  teach.  There  is  no  school 
system  which  does  not  include  such  teachers,  and  a 
survey  will  undoubtedly  bring  to  light  some  men  or 
women  peculiarly  well  qualified  for  the  new  work. 
They  should  be  made  to  feel  that  the  assumption  of 
the  new  duties  is  a  distinct  professional  advance. 

The  shopwork  teacher  should  be  a  so-called  "practi- 
cal man,"  —  one  who  has  had  shop  experience,  but  he 
must  be  potentially  a  teacher.  It  is  desirable  to  develop 
some  local  man  who  is  well  acquainted  with  the  com- 
munity rather  than  to  call  from  a  distance  one  who  has 
had  theoretical  or  even  practical  training*in  an  entirely 
different  environment.  Manual-training  teachers  who 
have  spent  two  or  three  summers  working  in  local  man- 
ufacturing establishments  make  excellent  teachers  of 
prevocational  shopwork. 

The  planning  of  courses  of  study  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  programs  will  depend  upon  many  factors  pecul- 
iar to  each  school  system,  factors  brought  to  light  in 
making  the  survey.  Most  of  these  have  been  touched 
upon  in  discussing  the  selection  of  children  or  will  be 
taken  up  in  detail  in  subsequent  chapters.  At  this 
point  it  is  desirable  only  to  mention,  in  merest  outline, 
the  salient  features  of  the  class  organization. 

Under  proper  conditions  and  with  due  recognition 
of  the  additional  service  given  by  the  teachers,  the 
school  day  may  be  lengthened  to  six  hours.  When  this 
is  done,  no  home  study  should  be  required,  though  it 


THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CLASSES  57 

may  be  permitted  or  even  encouraged  in  individual 
cases. 

A  large  amount  of  time,  preferably  about  one  half, 
should  be  devoted  to  some  form  or  forms  of  practical, 
constructive  handwork. 

As  far  as  possible,  and  the  possibilities  are  great,  the 
bookwork  should  be  related  to  the  constructive  work, 
at  least  in  the  beginning  and  until  a  vital  interest  in  the 
particular  subject  has  been  awakened. 

All  work  should  be  given  without  too  great  elabora- 
tion and  should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  the  children  can 
succeed  measurably  in  doing  it.  The  development  of 
confidence  and  of  the  habit  of  succeeding  is  of  greater 
importance  than  the  mastery  of  certain  prescribed  facts 
in  the  book  subjects,  or  than  the  development  of  tech- 
nique or  speed  in  the  shopwork. 

The  purpose  of  giving  prevocational  training  is  al- 
ways dual.  It  prolongs  the  school  life  of  the  children 
and  it  also  fits  them  somewhat  better  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions of  occupational  life,  provided  they  enter  such 
life,  as  they  commonly  do,  before  seventeen  or  eight- 
een years  of  age. 

The  course  is  not  intended  to  deprive  a  pupil  of  further 
school  work,  but  rather  to  devise  a  new  means  whereby 
some  may  reach  the  high  school  with  its  diversified 
opportunities.  However,  it  is  recognized  that  many  can- 
not go  to  high  school,  but  will  find  their  work  in  the 
humbler  occupations  of  an  industrial  life,  and  therefore 
the  teaching,  at  all  times,  should  emphasize  the  gospel 
of  work  and  the  essential  worth  of  the  worker. 


CHAPTER  V 

PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PREVOCATIONAL 
BOYS 

While  the  personal  factor  is  of  prime  importance  in 
any  educational  work,  it  is,  perhaps,  more  necessary  to 
study  the  personal  characteristics  of  the  children  in  pre- 
vocational  classes  than  in  almost  any  other  field.  The 
plan  of  such  work  is  one  of  adjustment  of  the  school  to 
the  individual,  instead  of  adherence  to  the  usual  prac- 
tice of  requiring  all  pupils  to  measure  up  to  prescribed 
standards.  An  accurate  appreciation  of  the  peculiar  per- 
sonality of  each  pupil,  therefore,  is  essential  to  the  full 
success  of  the  project.  This  appreciation  can  be  reached 
most  effectively  through  a  sympathetic  study  of  the  en- 
vironmental conditions  under  which  the  individual  has 
developed  characteristics  which  have  helped  to  make 
him  a  misfit  in  the  school  system. 

The  predominant  personal  characteristics  of  pre- 
vocational  pupils,  which  were  partially  revealed  in  the 
description  of  the  methods  of  selecting  such  children, 
are  worthy  of  further  examination.  They  may  be  enu- 
merated as  carelessness,  lack  of  a  sense  of  responsibility 
for  self-direction,  intellectual  reticence  or  modesty, 
physical  restlessness,  and  mental  immaturity. 

It  should  be  admitted  that  these  characteristics  are 
not  confined  to  prevocational  boys,  but  are  to  be  found, 
at  times,  in  all  children;  but  unless  these  characteristics 
produce  retardation  and  a  chronic  dislike  for  school 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  59 

life,  the  case  is  not  serious.  Because  of  the  lack  of 
facilities  in  the  regular  school  with  which  to  meet  ade- 
quately the  educational  requirements  of  children  pos- 
sessing these  characteristics,  the  greater  freedom  and 
more  varied  methods  of  the  prevocational  class  are 
found  necessary.  The  failure  of  the  regular  school  to 
interest  and  stimulate  these  pupils  should  not  be  con- 
strued as  a  criticism  of  the  teachers,  but  rather  it  should 
be  taken  as  an  indication  that  a  school  organization 
must  be  sought  where  the  individual  differences  of  the 
pupils  can  be  more  carefully  studied.  Such  studies  have 
been  possible  with  the  pupils  of  the  industrial  classes  at 
the  University  of  Chicago  and  with  the  prevocational 
classes  at  the  Lane  Technical  High  School,  Chicago, 
and  they  form  the  basis  of  the  following  analysis.  It 
may  be  said,  however,  that  the  conclusions  drawn  are 
confirmed  by  testimony  from  a  wide  range  of  pre- 
vocational and  elementary  industrial  schools  through- 
out the  country. 

It  has  been  noted  that  these  pupils  are  careless.  They 
are  fun-loving  and  care-free  to  such  an  extent  that  they 
do  not  appreciate  the  restraint  imposed  upon  them  by 
their  own  duties  or  by  the  rights  of  others.  When  re- 
straint of  authority  is  substituted,  they  resent  it  as 
something  arbitrary  and  unreasonable.  Yet  restraint  is 
exactly  what  they  need,  for  they  are  irresponsible  and 
are  ignorant  of  the  need  of  self-control  and  self -direction. 
It  is  necessary  to  meet  such  a  situation  sympathetically, 
with  little  recourse  to  authority,  and  to  develop  grad- 
ually the  pupil's  ability  to  supervise  himself.  This  is  no 
easy  task,  and  is  well-nigh  impossible  under  ordinary 
school  conditions. 

Another  characteristic,  which  is  rather  difficult  to 


60  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

describe,  may  be  called  diffidence,  modesty,  or  intel- 
lectual reticence.  Perhaps  this  modesty  is  not  always 
in  evidence.  In  fact  the  contrary  is  frequently  the  case. 
Yet  these  prevocational  boys  generally  show  extreme 
reluctance  to  display  their  intellectual  abilities,  even 
when  such  abilities  are  considerable.  This  diffident 
attitude  is  quite  consistent  with  the  general  disinclina- 
tion of  ignorance  to  expose  itself.  These  pupils  have 
so  long  regarded  themselves  as  misfits  in  the  school 
that  they  have  hidden,  as  under  a  bushel,  the  light  which 
they  possess.  The  regular  teacher,  in  the  endless  rou- 
tine of  school  duties,  has  failed  to  appreciate  many  of 
these  excellent  qualities  which  have  thus  been  kept  in  the 
background.  Modesty  is  assuredly  an  admirable  char- 
acteristic, but,  in  the  case  of  the  slow  child,  this  trait 
is  too  often  interpreted  as  stupidity  or  "backwardness." 

The  baneful  effect  of  this  modesty  or  reticence  is 
augmented  by  the  mental  immaturity  of  the  boys. 
Frequently  they  are  large  of  body,  but  younger  in  their 
thoughts  than  other  boys  of  the  same  age,  especially 
those  who  are  more  or  less  precocious.  By  constant 
comparison  with  the  younger  and  "brighter"  pupils, 
the  prevocational  boy  frequently  becomes  discouraged 
and  disheartened,  and  finally  is  glad  to  avoid  humilia- 
tion by  receding  into  the  dull  gray  background  where 
he  can  escape  observation. 

If  he  does  not  do  this  he  goes  to  the  other  extreme 
and  becomes  "troublesome."  He  resents  criticism  and 
direction,  especially  when  such  direction  relates  to  tasks 
which  he  has  learned  to  dislike  heartily.  Some  one  has 
said  that  everybody  likes  to  learn,  but  no  one  enjoys 
being  taught.  These  boys  seem  to  resent  the  process 
of  "being  taught." 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  61 

Prevocational  pupils  frequently  lack  power  of  adjust- 
ment. They  do  not  readily  adapt  their  rate  of  progress 
to  that  of  the  class,  nor  are  they  able  to  "give  atten- 
tion," automatically,  so  to  speak,  simply  because  the 
time  has  arrived  for  a  certain  lesson.  One  is  reminded 
of  the  little  primarian  who,  when  reprimanded  for  not 
keeping  her  place  in  the  reading-lesson,  replied,  "I  can 
keep  my  place,  but  I  cannot  keep  everybody  else 's 
place."  It  is  much  the  same  as  when  a  military  expert 
discovered  that  an  army  could  march  farther  in  a  day 
if  each  man  took  his  own  gait  instead  of  the  regulation 
army  step.  This  is  figuratively  true  of  the  prevocational 
class. 

This  peculiarity  is  especially  marked  in  the  book 
subjects.  As  noted  before,  such  pupils  are  sometimes 
described  as  "anti-book."  It  appears  to  be  true,  how- 
ever, that  they  are  not  necessarily  antagonistic  to  books, 
but  rather  to  the  peculiar  use  of  them  which  school- 
room practice  has  made  necessary.  When  these  pupils 
are  allowed  to  select  their  books,  they  are  frequently 
as  much  interested  in  the  use  of  them  as  the  brightest 
pupils.  A  good  illustration  of  this  fact  was  furnished  in 
the  summer  session  of  the  industrial  class  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago.  The  class  was  in  session  during  the 
entire  summer,  five  days  a  week  and  seven  and  one 
half  hours  daily.  The  attendance  was  voluntary,  and  it 
naturally  fluctuated  somewhat'  from  hour  to  hour  as  the 
different  studies  were  presented,  j  While  satisfactory  in 
all  classes,  the  attendance  and  application  were  better  in 
the  hour  devoted  each  day  to  reading  than  in  any  other, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  the  shopwork.  Catalogued 
as  dull  and  anti-book  by  their  elementary-school  teach- 
ers, the  boys  applied  themselves  with  diligence,  even 


62  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

on  the  hottest  summer  days,  to  the  various  books  and 
magazines  which  were  collected  with  the  purpose  of  ex- 
citing their  curiosity  and  ultimately  of  training  them  to 
a  habit  of  reading.  Said  one  boy,  "  I  don't  like  no  kind 
of  books  except  about  how  to  make  things."  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  his  eager  perusal  of  Popular  Mechanics 
improved  his  English  quite  as  much  as  an  equal  amount 
of  time  devoted  to  oral  reading  in  a  "Fifth-Reader 
Class." 

It  has  been  noted  that,  for  one  or  more  of  the  above 
reasons,  prevocational  pupils  are  generally  seriously  re- 
tarded. They  have  been  referred  to  as  the  "failures" 
in  the  schools.  They  have  been  thought  distinctly  in- 
ferior to  their  fellows,  for  how  else  was  their  belated 
arrival  in  a  given  grade  to  be  explained?  Have  the 
grade  teachers  been  wrong  in  their  judgment?  Have 
they  overlooked  or  misinterpreted  some  of  the  excellent 
qualities  which  these  children  possess,  or  the  unfor- 
tunate personal  experiences  which  have  helped  to 
obscure  them?  It  is  such  questions  as  these  that  the 
prevocational  teacher  must  seek  to  answer.  Because  he 
is  not  forced  to  adhere  rigidly  to  a  prescribed  program 
or  plan,  the  prevocational  teacher  comes  into  a  different 
personal  relation  with  his  pupils.  As  a  result  he  has 
been  convinced  that  some  of  the  adjectives  applied  to 
such  children  are  not  wisely  chosen,  to  say  the  least,  and 
he  has  thus  been  led  to  study  these  pupils  with  great 
care. 

In  studying  sympathetically  the  individual  children 
in  this  group,  it  is  generally  brought  to  light  that  each 
one  has,  in  himself  or  in  his  life,  some  quality  or  cir- 
cumstance or  limitation  which  has  radically  influenced 
his  school  progress.  These  qualities  and  circumstances 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  63 

cannot  be  classified  or  discussed  in  the  mass,  but  can 
only  be  revealed  by  the  recital  of  several  individual 
cases. 

In  presenting  the  following  cases  it  is  not  maintained 
that  they  are  unique  or  that  they  could  not  be  du- 
plicated in  many  public-school  classes,  but  the  fact 
remains  that  these  personal  traits  and  environmental 
conditions  either  had  not  been  discovered  in  the  grade 
schools  which  the  pupils  attended  or  that  there  had 
been  no  opportunity  or  no  inclination  to  adapt  the 
educational  methods  to  the  needs  of  these  individuals. 
That  the  markedly  different  atmosphere  of  the  pre- 
vocational  class  brought  the  facts  to  light  warrants 
the  setting  forth  of  several  illustrative  personal  studies. 

The  following  quotations  are  selected  from  a  large 
number  of  similar  statements  made  by  prevocational 
boys.  Each  extract  is  typical  and  illustrates  a  peculiar 
handicap  under  which  a  considerable  number  of  these 
boys  have  labored. 

Change  of  Schools 
Age  15.  "I  have  no  mother.  I  went  to  nine  different  schools 
and  every  school  I  went  to  they  put  me  down.  Before  I  came 
to  Lane  I  was  in  low  sixth  grade.   Now  after  two  semesters  I 
am  in  low  eighth." 

Travel 
Age  17.  *'  When  I  was  five  years  old  I  went  from  New  York 
to  Texas,  where  my  father  was  killed.  The  following  year  my 
uncle  took  me  to  Salt  Lake  City.  Then  my  mother  married. 
A  month  later  I  was  in  Tampa,  Florida.  The  next  year  I  was 
in  Alaska.  I  was  then  ten  years  old;  I  could  not  spell.  I  have 
been  all  through  Yellowstone  and  through  the  Grand  Canyon 
of  Arizona.  I  have  visited  gold,  silver,  and  iron  mines.  I  was 
in  the  petrified  forest  and  have  lived  on  cattle  ranches  and 
seen  cattle  branded. 


64  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

"My  last  trip  was  from  Denver  to  Chicago.  This  is  my 
fifth  trip  to  Chicago.  And  this  is  the  only  time  I  ever  stayed 
long  enough  to  stay  in  school. 

"My  grandfather  says  that  he  will  take  me  to  North  Dakota 
when  I  get  an  education.  He  will  teach  me  to  be  an  engineer. 
That  is  what  I  want  to  be.  Both  my  uncles  are  engineers." 

Bad  Health 

Age  15.  "I  was  born  in  a  little  shanty  and  raised  in  poverty 
and  not  extra  much  happiness.  I  have  been  operated  on  sev- 
eral times  and  have  almost  lived  in  hospitals  with  these  horri- 
ble operations  and  diseases. 

"When  I  was  seven,  death  knocked  at  our  door  and  took 
my  father.  My  poor  mother  has  struggled  to  raise  the  four 
little  children  by  scrubbing  nights  and  washing  days.  She  has 
brought  me  up  splendid  and  people  often  remark  how  clean 

the  little  X children  are.   I  mean  to  do  my  very  best 

at  Lane  and  hope  that  no  teacher  will  flunk  me.  My  mother 
wants  me  to  have  an  education." 

Truancy 
Age  14.  "I  bummed  from  school  because  I  wanted  to  go  to 
work.  I  like  Lane,  but  I  got  the  fever  for  work.  I  quit,  but 
I  could  not  get  a  good  job  because  I  had  no  education,  so  I 
came  back  to  Lane.  I  have  quit  three  times  in  my  life.  Now 
my  mind  is  made  up  to  stay  and  get  an  education.  Ever  since 
I  made  up  my  mind  my  report  card  has  been  improving." 

Unhappy  Domestic  Conditions 

Age  14.  "At  the  age  of  three  my  father  took  me  to  Canada. 
At  five  I  came  back  and  got  my  first  look  at  my  mother. 

"When  I  was  ten  I  can  remember  my  first  error.  I  got  an 
awful  bad  chum.  He  persuaded  me  to  hang  away  from  school 
and  I  got  to  like  it.  Finally  he  moved  and  I  had  an  awful  time 
to  stay  in  school. 

"When  I  was  eight  my  sister  was  born  and  my  real  troubles 
began.  My  mother  praised  my  brother  and  sister  and  told  me 
I  was  a  little  piece  of  misery.  She  made  me  stay  away  from 
school,  scrub  the  floors,  and  wash  the  windows.  WTien  the 
twins  were  born,  I  had  to  stay  home  with  them  when  she 
went  away.  Then  my  mother  divorced  my  father. 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  65 

"I  left  home  and  went  to  my  father.  Then  I  was  taken  to 
the  Juvenile  Court  and  I  had  to  stay  in  a  home  for  a  year.  I 
was  taken  out  and  got  put  back  again. 

"My  father  began  to  drink  and  to  beat  me.  I  came  to  Lane 
so  I  could  stay  away  from  home  most  of  the  day  to  keep  away 
from  trouble. 

"Now  we  have  a  housekeeper  and  things  have  changed  a 
little,  but  not  the  way  I  wish.  I  am  disgusted." 

Intemperance  in  the  Home 
Age  16.  "We  live  in  a  furnished  room,  my  father  and  I. 
My  mother  left  me  with  my  father  and  the  baby  is  in  an 
orphan  asylum.  My  father  got  drunk  when  my  mother  ran 
away.  I  can't  get  my  lessons  when  he  comes  home  drunk.  I 
can't  sleep  good  either." 

Employment  Out  of  School  Hours  to  Earn  Money 

Age  16.  "I  have  an  evening  newspaper  route  of  about  200 
customers.  In  vacation  I  also  have  a  morning  route.  On 
Saturdays  I  peddle  about  300  papers. 

"It  is  easy  for  me  to  get  a  job.  I  just  ask  and  they  generally 
take  me  on.  I  was  going  to  work  before  I  came  to  Lane  for 
the  Daily  News  at  $7.50  a  week  with  chances  for  advance- 
ment, but  seeing  the  advantages  to  be  had  at  Lane  I  changed 
my  mind. 

*'I  do  not  care  very  much  for  school,  but  I  want  to  graduate. 
I  would  rather  work  if  I  could  get  good  money." 

Age  15.  "When  in  grammar  school  I  used  to  work  in  a 
bowling-alley  setting  up  pins  until  one  o'clock  at  night." 

Age  15.  "I  stayed  out  for  a  year  and  helped  my  father  in 
his  carpenter's  shop. 

"I  can  lay  out  all  winders  and  stringers  in  a  stair.  I  learned 
to  lay  out  all  stairs  made  in  the  shop.  Before  long  the  business 
agent  from  the  union  made  me  quit  because  I  was  only  fifteen. 
I  cannot  join  the  unions  for  two  years  so  I  am  going  to  school 
until  I  am  seventeen." 

Special  Inclination  Toward  a  Vocation 
Age  14.  "This  has  been  the  most  unlucky  year  of  all.    I 
lost  my  father  and  my  uncle  in  six  months.  Everything  seems 
to  go  wrong. 


66  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

"I  thought  I  would  like  to  go  to  Lane  because  I  am  so  far 
back  in  my  grades.  And  I  came  here  and  I  like  everything 
here  but  forge,  which  I  wish  I  did  not  have  to  take,  for  I  know 
I  never  will  have  to  be  a  blacksmith.  I  want  to  be  a  mechanic 
because  I  was  born  with  the  knack  to  be  a  mechanic.  I  can 
do  anything  in  that  line.  I  am  a  good  carpenter  and  have 
everything  of  tools  there  is  to  be  had.  I  hope  to  make  a  good 
living  with  them  some  day.  When  I  was  small  I  bought  tools 
one  by  one  and  now  I  have  a  great  collection. 

"I  made  an  aeroplane  that  flew  165  feet  at  the  Coliseum. 
It  was  three  feet  long." 

Age  15.  "I  was  born  in  Italy  where  I  went  to  school  five 
years.  At  eleven  I  started  my  traveling.  First  Paris  seven 
months.  Then  Madrid  five  months.  Then  New  York  two 
months. 

"Now  I  go  to  Lane  to  learn  to  be  an  architect.  I  take  it 
up  because  since  I  was  a  little  boy  I  always  liked  to  draw.  So 
I  proved  to  my  father  that  I  may  do  good  in  that  trade  and 
he  is  very  satisfied. 

"I  have  traveled  to  Cincinnati,  Dayton,  and  Indianapolis 
to  help  my  father  in  his  trade  of  setting  up  marble  altars. 

"On  Saturdays  I  go  to  my  brother's  studio  to  work  in  clay 
and  draw.  I  have  made  faces  of  babies  and  arms  that  show 
muscles  and  many  other  things.  My  teacher  put  me  in  the 
high  school  art  class.  Evenings  I  go  to  the  Art  Institute.  I 
made  a  design  for  the  cover  of  our  school  magazine." 

Age  15.  "I  was  sick  very  much  and  we  had  to  move  often. 
My  father  is  dead  and  my  mother  works  to  support  us. 

"The  trade  which  I  would  like  to  follow  is  a  machinist's 
trade.  I  have  been  interested  in  steam  engines  all  the  days  of 
my  life.  I  like  to  repair  and  pull  them  apart  and  fix  them  and 
drive  them.  All  I  like  is  things  going  fast  and  making  a  lot 
of  noise." 

Temperament 

Age  14.  "When  I  was  eight  years  old  I  was  put  in  a  sub- 
normal room  where  there  was  a  bunch  of  rummys  and  I  got 
just  like  them  in  a  short  time.  I  was  put  in  that  room  because 
I  was  so  nervous.  I  stayed  there  about  a  year,  then  father 
put  me  in  the  parochial  school  for  a  year.  Finally  I  came 
to  Lane. 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  67 

"I  ought  to  be  in  high  school  long  ago.  I  enjoy  my  studies 
and  am  impatient  to  graduate." 

Backwardness 

Age  14.  "It  was  thought  I  would  become  a  cripple  and  my 
mind  unbalanced  when  I  was  born,  but  I  am  well  now. 

"I  am  very  hard  of  learning  and  my  grammar-school 
teachers  thought  I  was  lazy. 

"My  mother  took  me  to  my  uncle's  farm  in  Mississippi 
right  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  because  I  had  heart  trouble.  That 
kept  me  back  a  year." 

The  following  cases,  perhaps,  are  exceptional  rather 
than  typical.  They  are  worthy  of  note,  however,  since 
they  serve  to  emphasize  the  complexity  of  the  problem 
with  which  the  prevocational  teacher  deals. 

Age  17.  "I  am  pretty  good  at  my  studies,  but  I  can't  spell. 
I  don't  talk  much  in  company  because  I'm  afraid  people  will 
find  out  my  failing.  I  want  to  learn  to  read  and  spell  well. 
Then  my  father  will  take  me  into  his  business." 

This  boy  could  not  sound  his  letters  when  at  the  age 
of  sixteen  he  came  to  the  prevocational  department  of 
the  Lane  Technical  High  School. 

Age  15.  "I  live  with  friends  of  my  folks.  I  have  no  father, 
no  mother.  They  sank  with  the  Titanic.  So  did  my  little 
sister.  I  was  sick  here  in  America  in  a  hospital  and  they 
did  n't  tell  me  until  I  got  well.  I  never  told  my  grammar- 
school  teachers.  Please  don't  tell  anybody.  It  makes  me  cry 
if  anybody  talks  to  me  about  it.  I  don't  let  the  boys  know." 

Age  16.  "I  was  always  called  a  tough  at  school  until  I  got 
into  seventh  grade  with  a  teacher  I  liked.  I  was  just  going 
to  pass  when  she  got  sick.  Then  a  sub  came  and  I  was  n't 
any  good  after  that.  Now  I  'm  ashamed  when  I  see  my  chums 
in  third-year  high  school." 

Age  15.  "I  was  born  in  Leeds,  England.  There  the  school- 
master had  a  cane  with  which  he  used  to  beat  us.  Everybody 
hated  the  schoolmaster  because  he  had  a  cane. 

"When  I  started  school  here  I  was  surprised  to  find  there 
was  no  cane,  and  started  to  take  life  easy.  The  boys  told  me 


68  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

I  was  smart  and  I  got  a  swell  head  as  you  might  say.  So  I 
failed  twice  and  that  put  me  back. 

"I  was  tardy  nearly  all  the  time  and  the  teachers  scolded 
me  nearly  every  day.  I  tried  to  get  even  with  them  and  they 
tried  to  get  even  with  me  and  so  the  fight  was  on. 

"When  I  heard  of  the  shops  in  Lane  I  came  here  to  start 
a  new  life  and  make  up  what  I  had  lost.  I  like  my  shops  and 
work  hard.  I  attended  Lane  Summer  School  and  made  up  a 
half-year.  I  expect  to  graduate  in  June." 

Age  15.  "When  I  got  to  fourth  grade  it  was  easy  and  the 
teacher  pushed  me  into  fifth,  but  it  got  hard  so  she  pushed  me 
back  into  fourth,  and  for  a  year  and  a  half  straight  they  kept 
pushing  me  up  and  down.  Later  in  sixth  grade  I  got  pushed 
down  again,  but  the  principal  said  I  was  a  pretty  big  boy  to 
be  pushed  down  to  that  room  so  she  pushed  me  up  again." 

Age  14.  "I  came  to  the  Industrial  Class  (U.  of  C.)  to  learn 
all  I  could  about  everything  and  especially  about  machinery 
and  mechanical  drawing. 

"I  am  so  far  behind  in  school  because  I  did  n't  stick  to  it 
because  I  got  so  much  English  and  singing.  Then  they  cut 
out  the  arithmetic  in  my  class  and  that  was  the  end  of  me." 

Age  15.  "We  have  just  come  back  from  a  visit  to  Europe. 
I  like  this  school  because  they  have  shops  and  I  am  not  too 
big  for  my  room.  Some  teachers  in  the  grammar  school  never 
see  a  big  boy  nor  call  on  him." 

Age  18.  "I  went  to  Lane  two  years  ago  and  three  months 
before  graduation  I  got  the  Wanderlust.  My  dreams  have  all 
evaporated  and  I  am  back  again  after  two  years  of  bumming 
and  loafing.  I  want  to  graduate  and  go  on  with  my  education. 

"I  left  to  go  camping  and  I  worked  in  an  architect's  office 
for  a  half  a  year. 

"I  always  had  a  notion  to  go  to  sea.  And  last  summer 
while  my  mother  was  in  Europe  she  got  a  job  for  me  to  ship 
before  the  mast  with  the  captain  of  the  S.S.  Bergensfjord.  I 
signed  up  in  September  as  a  regular  seaman,  you  understand, 
and  I  got  all  that  was  coming  my  way.  I  had  a  fine  idea  of 
sailing  when  I  started,  —  to  see  the  world,  you  know,  and 
sail  the  deeps,  and  all  that,  —  but  when  I  reached  Bergen,  it 
was  good-bye  to  the  good  ship  Bergensfjord,  and  I  went  to 
Christiania  to  see  my  friend  who  is  an  army  captain  and  a 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  69 

famous  "rittmeister";  that  means  riding-master.  There  I  was 
treated  like  a  king;  it  seemed  that  way.  Some  contrast,  you 
may  imagine,  to  a  seaman's  life. 

"Why  am  I  back  at  Lane?  To  get  educated.  After  you 
have  eaten  and  slept  with  brutes,  you  know  what  'no  edu- 
cation' can  mean. 

"Well,  I  would  not  have  been  worth  a  row  of  pins  if  I  had 
not  tried  myself  out.  I  could  n't  stick  to  school  before.  I  don't 
know  what  I  am  good  for,  the  sailing  dream  is  still  with  me, 
but  I  am  going  to  get  an  education,  and  when  I  go  to  sea 
again,  it  will  be  different." 

Age  15.  "I  work  in  a  garage.  The  owner  is  tearing  a  ma- 
chine apart.  I  enjoy  that.  I  want  to  be  a  mechanic. 

"In  the  school  I  came  from  I  did  n't  like  literature  or  Eng- 
lish, at  least  the  way  they  taught  it,  to  learn  adjectives,  verbs, 
and  what  kind  of  sentences  they  were. 

"We  had  to  stand  in  lines  of  threes,  and  we  got  sent  to  the 
office  for  everything.  And  were  made  to  stay  after  school. 
They  don't  do  any  of  those  things  here. 

"They  did  n't  want  to  let  me  take  the  exam,  for  Lane. 
They  said  I  did  n't  need  Lane  because  I  was  getting  along  all 
right.  I  wanted  to  go  to  Lane  and  then  I  began  to  get  marked 
below  75;  so  here  I  am  and  I  am  very  glad  to  be  here." 

It  is  obvious  that  the  foregoing  statements  reveal  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  ministering  to  the  educational 
needs  of  these  boys,  but  it  is  the  testimony  of  those 
actually  engaged  in  the  work  that,  great  as  the  diffi- 
culties are,  greater  far  are  the  satisfactions  which  are 
felt  with  every  successful  attempt  to  overcome  them, 
because  of  the  growing  conviction  that  the  boys  them- 
selves are  so  well  worth  while. 


CHAPTER  VI 

APPROPRIATE   SUBJECT-MATTER   FOR   PREVOCA- 
TIONAL   CLASSES 

The  following  chapters  present,  in  some  detail,  illus- 
trative examples' of  concrete  school  material  which  has 
been  found  useful  in  educational  work  with  pre  vocational 
pupils.  The  grouping  of  this  material  will  indicate  at 
once  that  the  usual  school  subjects  are  to  be  given,  but 
it  is  believed  that  the  methods  employed  are  sufficiently 
different  from  those  commonly  found  in  the  elementary 
school  to  make  such  presentation  valuable.  It  is  desir- 
able to  devote  this  chapter  to  a  preliminary  discussion  of 
the  principles  governing  the  selection,  organization,  and 
presentation  of  such  material. 

In  the  recent  voluminous  discussion  regarding  the 
organization  of  prevocational  classes  and  elementary 
industrial  schools,  as  a  substitute  for  the  usual  upper 
elementary  grades,  it  has  frequently  been  claimed  that 
a  great  mass  of  subject-matter,  now  found  in  the  grades, 
must  be  eliminated  to  make  room  for  new  material 
more  appropriate  for  the  class  of  pupils  in  question. 
Even  the  progressive  6-3-3  plan  of  organization  em- 
phasizes the  necessity  of  excluding  from  the  curriculum 
of  the  elementary  school  much  that  has  long  been 
deemed  indispensable. 

At  the  outset,  however,  it  should  be  noted  that  there 
are  no  new  school  subjects.  In  general,  it  may  be 
said  that  what  we  have  been  trying  to  give  the  children 


APPROPRIATE  SUBJECT-MATTER  71 

is  essential  for  every  one,  but  the  organizer  of  pre- 
vocational  work  will  at  once  establish  two  principles  to 
which  he  will  resolutely  adhere  and  which  he  will  urge 
upon  his  subordinate  teachers  for  their  guidance  at  all 
times.  First,  the  pupil  is  always  to  be  considered  of 
greater  Importance  than  the  subject,  and  his  enjoyment 
of  the  school  as  a  whole  is  not  to  be  marred  by  undue 
insistence  on  marked  progress  along  all  lines.  Second, 
all  must  acknowledge  that  the  acquisition  of  a  particular 
set  of  facts  relating  to  any  subject  is  of  relatively  little 
importance  as  compared  with  the  development  of  a  gen- 
uine interest  in  some  one  practical  phase  of  the  subject. 

The  old  subjects  are  the  only  subjects,  or  certainly 
the  most  important  subjects,  with  which  the  school 
can  deal.  All  must  learn  to  read  and  to  write,  to  use 
figures  wherever  necessary  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life, 
to  know  enough  about  history  to  appreciate  the  ele- 
ment of  growth  in  civilization,  enough  of  science  to 
understand  that  it  means  a  substitution  of  real  knowl- 
edge for  mere  "rule  of  thumb,"  enough  physiology  and 
hygiene  to  appreciate  the  existence  of  nature's  laws 
governing  the  health  of  the  individual  and  of  society, 
enough  technical  work  to  inspire  an  interest  in  the  in- 
dustrial activities  by  which  the  majority  of  humanity 
supports  itself. 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  of  attainment  to  genuine  suc- 
cess in  life,  under  present-day  conditions,  that  is  not 
built  upon  at  least  a  rudimentary  working  knowledge 
of  practically  all  of  these  educational  elements.  These 
are  found  in  the  school  curriculum  to-day  as  a  result 
of  the  working  of  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Because  they  are  essential  they  have  persisted.  There- 
fore, the  demand  for  a  reorganization  of  the  work  of 


72  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

the  school  through  the  process  of  elimination  cannot 
be  construed  to  mean  the  elimination  of  school  sub- 
jects. Rather  it  is  necessary  to  eliminate  some  of  the 
material  which  has  outlived  its  usefulness  in  school  work 
because  it  bears  no  vital  relation  to  present-day  con- 
ditions nor  to  the  lives  of  the  children  who  are  studying 
in  the  schools.  For  example,  history  will  not  be  elimi- 
nated, but  much  of  the  military  and  political  material 
will  be  replaced  by  that  which  is  economic  or  industrial 
in  nature.  Each  subject  includes  a  mass  of  material  so 
great  that  no  pupil  can  absorb  it  all  in  years  of  school 
life.  The  problem,  therefore,  is  to  find  that  particular 
portion  of  the  material  which  will  make  the  strongest 
appeal  to  the  boys  and  will  arouse  in  them  an  interest 
which  may  demand  a  lifetime  of  growth  for  its  entire 
satisfaction.  In  other  words,  the  usual  school  subjects 
must  be  vitalized  or  "motivated"  anew. 

The  common  practice  has  been  to  attempt  to  teach 
the  principles  of  the  subject  with  the  hope  that  a  mas- 
tery of  such  principles  will  enable  the  pupils  to  go  forth 
into  life  and  to  apply  them  to  any  situation  which 
presents  itself.  Frankly,  it  must  be  admitted  that  this 
procedure  of  teaching  the  principle  without  immediate 
application  has  rarely  been  successful.  It  certainly  has 
not  been  effective  with  the  mass  of  public-school  chil- 
dren. Of  course,  this  has  been  clearly  recognized  by 
educators  for  many  years,  and  innumerable  experiments 
have  been  made  to  meet  the  situation  by  providing  for 
what  is  generally  referred  to  as  the  concrete  in  educa- 
tion. For  example,  it  will  be  admitted  that  most  people 
who  read  and  think  at  all  find  constant  application  for 
whatever  knowledge  they  may  possess  regarding  per- 
centage. Human  affairs  are  compared  one  with  another 


APPROPRIATE  SUBJECT-MATTER  73 

by  means  of  percentage,  from  the  standing  of  the  base- 
ball clubs  to  the  condition  of  the  child  workers  in  the 
United  States.  In  teaching  percentage  in  schools,  how- 
ever, we  find  that,  in  seeking  an  application  for  the  prin- 
ciples, the  makers  of  textbooks  sometimes  overlook  the 
real  significance  of  "the  concrete"  in  education.  For 
example,  the  following  problem  from  a  present-day 
arithmetic  may  be  cited :  "  Before  the  use  of  anti-toxin 
a  physician  lost  80%  of  his  patients  who  were  sick  with 
diphtheria;  since  he  has  used  anti-toxin  he  has  lost  only 
5%  of  such  patients.  How  many  lives  has  he  saved  out 
of  620  cases  treated  by  the  new  remedy?" 

Undoubtedly  such  information  as  the  above  is  im- 
portant for  the  physician  and  his  patients  and  possibly 
for  medical  students,  but  there  is  a  question  whether  a 
boy  of  twelve  will  find  this  example  any  more  concrete 
than  the  frankly  abstract  problem  in  percentage.  In 
fact,  with  prevocational  boys  it  is  found  that  an  elab- 
orate and  varied  scheme  of  illustration  frequently  dis- 
tracts the  attention  from  the  principle  involved  and 
renders  the  instruction  even  less  effective  than  it  would 
be  if  a  purely  abstract  treatment  were  employed. 

These  boys  must  be  led  to  discover  that  there  is  a  real 
use  for  percentage.  They  may  be  shown,  for  example, 
that  it  serves  to  express  certain  facts  which  are  needed 
by  the  machinist  in  planning  and  executing  his  work. 
In  this  way  there  may  be  created  an  interest  in  per- 
centage so  great  that  the  pupil  will  really  wish  to 
acquire  facility  and  accuracy  in  handling  the  process  in 
the  course  of  his  own  work  in  the  shop  or  elsewhere  as 
occasion  may  arise. 

This  procedure  of  maintaining  an  intimate  relation 
between  the  shopwork  and  the  more  purely  intellectual 


74  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

processes  constitutes  genuine  correlation  and  cannot  be 
too  strongly  urged.  The  usual  methods  of  education  are 
often  deplorably  ineffective  with  the  child  who  has  no 
interest  in  the  mere  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  who 
sees  no  reason  for  making  the  effort  which  such  acquisi- 
tion demands.  With  such  children,  generally  motor- 
minded,  the  interest  which  the  academic  work  derives 
from  its  association  with  shopwork  is  often  the  determin- 
ing factor  in  making  school  life  successful.  In  all  work 
with  prevocational  boys  it  is  being  demonstrated  con- 
stantly that  the  chief  value  of  the  concrete  is  to  estab- 
lish an  initial  interest  in  school  studies  previously  found 
distasteful. 

The  fact  must  be  clearly  established  that  the  so- 
called  "concrete"  is  concrete  for  the  type  of  pupils 
under  consideration  only  when  the  individual  is  vitally 
dependent  upon  it  for  the  knowledge  which  he  needs 
to  use  immediately  in  attaining  some  desired  end. 

With  this  initial  interest  firmly  established,  the  ne- 
cessity for  a  liberal  amount  of  drill  and  practice  becomes 
obvious  to  the  pupil  himself.  Be  this  initial-  interest 
centered  in  doing  a  "man's  work"  in  the  shop,  or  gain- 
ing admission  to  the  high  school,  or  preparing  to  go  out 
into  the  world  to  get  a  job  with  "good  pay,"  achieve- 
ment being  the  child's  aim,  drill  and  practice  for  accom- 
plishing that  end  become  enlivened,  animated  activities, 
transformed  into  something  real  and  valuable  because 
of  the#  appreciation  that  such  drill  is  indispensable  to 
joyful  accomplishment.       ^ 

When  the  boy  is  as  eager  to  perform  his  school  tasks 
t  as  to  engage  in  a  baseball  contest,  there  is  no  more 
#  questioning  on  his  part  about  drill  in  shop  or  lesson- 
room  than  there  is  regarding  the  practice  he  devotes  to 
i  - 


APPROPRIATE  SUBJECT-MATTER  75 

acquiring  skill  for  the  ball  game.  To  the  boy  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  pitcher  must  practice  faithfully  at  every 
opportunity,  while  all  the  members  of  the  nine  must 
throw,  catch,  bat,  and  run  bases  for  the  purpose  of  ren- 
dering themselves  efficient  when  the  time  comes  to  use 
that  skill  in  defeating  the  opposing  team.  In  much  the 
same  way,  if  the  matter  is  rightly  presented,  prevoca- 
tional  boys  will  not  only  accept,  but  will  accept  will- 
ingly, the  necessary  drill  in  their  school  subjects,  but 
they  must  be  shown  in  every  instance  the  practical 
application  which  the  subject  has  to  real  life. 

An  adequate  amount  of  repetition  of  any  school 
subject  can  be  secured  by  some  such  expedient  as  that 
of  drawing  the  child's  attention  to  the  parallel  between 
drill  in  school  work  and  the  infinite  amount  of  practice 
performed  in  every  walk  of  life  in  the  real  world.  Devel- 
oping speed  in  piecework  in  the  factories,  training  for 
athletic  competition,  acquiring  technique  in  perform- 
ance on  a  musical  instrument  may  be  cited  as  examples. 

Second  in  importance  only  to  the  proper  use  of  the 
concrete  is  effective  correlation  between  subjects.  With 
the  establishment  of  genuine  interest  the  child  himself 
becomes  the  correlating  principle,  since  his  interests  re- 
veal the  need  and  the  possibility  of  such  correlation. 
When  the  child's  actual  interests  and  needs  are  over- 
looked, too  rigid  adherence  to  some  abstract  principle 
of  correlation  is  likely  to  defeat  its  own  ends  and  pro- 
duce a  situation  more  distasteful  to  the  child  than  that 
which  results  from  a  purely  abstract  and  isolated  treat- 
ment of  the  various  subjects. 

Correlation  between  all  subjects  at  every  point  is 
impossible  and  unnecessary.  The  mind  works  more 
rapidly  than  the  hand  and  a  natural  correlation  occurs 


76  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

only  at  comparatively  few  points  of  contact;  but  if  the 
two  principles  above  stated  be  followed,  —  first,  that 
the  initial  interest  must  be  established,  and  second, 
that  the  child's  interest  must  be  the  correlating  princi- 
ple, —  a  course  of  study  will  be  developed  which  will  be 
at  once  coherent  and  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  in- 
dividual child. 

In  organizing  prevocational  classes,  therefore,  the 
plan  commonly  employed  is  to  make  the  shopwork 
central  and  paramount,  not,  perhaps,  because  it  really 
is  of  greater  value,  but  because  it  appeals  to  the  boys  as 
being  so.  It  measures  up  with  the  vocational  motive 
which  boys  of  this  type  are  very  likely  to  have  at  four- 
teen or  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  this  vocational  motive 
is  seized  upon  as  likely  to  be  effective  in  organizing  the 
entire  scheme  of  shop-  and  bookwork. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  there  are  certain 
psychological  reasons  for  employing  shopwork,  reasons 
which  for  years  have  been  urged  in  support  of  manual 
training.  These  reasons  are  as  valid  to-day  as  ever,  and 
when  coupled  with  the  more  practical  reasons  for  giv- 
ing liberal  attention  to  handwork,  they  present  a  strong 
case  for  the  plan  of  making  the  shopwork  the  central 
feature  and  for  grouping  the  bookwork  around  it. 

It  should  be  said  that  no  particular  form  of  shop- 
work  can  be  recommended  as  superior  for  all  times  and 
all  places  to  every  other  type,  but  this  shopwork  should 
result,  where  possible,  in  the  production  of  such  articles 
as  can  be  used  by  the  school  or  the  community.  This  is 
one  of  the  points  of  difference  between  the  more  formal 
manual  training  and  the  prevocational  handwork. 

In  organizing  and  presenting  the  so-called  academic 
work  one  important  consideration  is  the  use  of  text- 


APPROPRIATE  SUBJECT-MATTER  77 

books.  A  feature  of  the  instruction  in  book  subjects  in 
many  prevocational  classes  is  that  the  book  is  made  by 
the  pupil  himself.  Regarding  this  practice,  it  cannot  be 
insisted  too  strongly  that  it  is  futile  to  hunt  for  text- 
books in  most  of  the  subjects  given  in  prevocational 
classes.  Such  textbooks  do  not  exist  and  perhaps 
should  never  be  made.  For  example,  a  textbook  on 
Vocational  Arithmetic  will  hardly  fit  any  particular  pre- 
vocational class  unless  it  is  made  for  that  class.  An 
effective  Textile  Arithmetic,  or  Printers9  Arithmetic  or 
Farm  Arithmetic  may  be  compiled,  but  a  general  voca- 
tional arithmetic  which  tries  to  cover  all  phases  of 
vocational  work  is  simply  an  illustration  of  reversion 
to  the  type,  and  we  shall  have  what  most  school  arith- 
metics are  to-day.  As  above  stated,  the  initial  interest 
must  be  gained  by  reference  to  the  immediate  shop- 
work  problems,  or  to  problems  arising  from  other  school 
activities,  and  those  problems  cannot  be  foretold  by  the 
maker  of  the  textbook  unless  he  be  the  teacher  of  the 
class.  In  fact,  the  selection  of  "live,"  pertinent  ma- 
terial, out  of  which  the  courses  of  study  and  the  texts 
are  made  day  by  day,  is  one  of  the  most  important 
duties  of  the  prevocational  teacher.  The  succeeding 
chapters  will  contain  liberal  reference  to  sources  of 
such  material.  In  general  it  may  be  said,  however, 
that  it  must  be  found  in  current  literature,  in  shop 
catalogues,  in  government  reports,  in  reports  of  labor 
unions,  etc.,  etc. 

The  plan  of  having  the  pupils  develop  their  own 
textbooks  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  purpose  of  this 
new  type  of  education,  since  the  school  is  expected  to 
articulate  directly  with  life.  It  is  therefore  natural  that 
the  material  should  be  drawn  from  actual  conditions 


78  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

found  at  the  present  time  and  frequently  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity.  A  "loose-leaf  system"  of  texts,  prepared 
by  the  pupils  themselves  from  this  varied  material,  is 
almost  certain  to  be  of  greater  interest  than  the  ordinary 
textbook,  which  must  always  be  some  years  behind  the 
times  and  must  be  made,  presumably,  to  fit  a  wide 
variety  of  local  conditions.  It  is  the  specific  rather  than 
the  general  which  appeals  to  the  pupils,  and  this  is  best 
supplied  by  current  literature  and  live  reports.  In  some 
schools  where  bookbinding  is  carried  on,  the  texts  are 
bound  and  presented  to  the  pupils  at  the  end  of  the  year. 
While  this  work  has  not  been  developed  extensively,  it 
offers  great  opportunity  for  enriching  the  academic 
work  in  pre  vocational  classes. 

Some  elements  which  are  of  great  moment  in  the  pre- 
sentation of  the  subject-matter  to  prevocational  classes 
are  individual  instruction,  distribution  of  time,  the  size 
of  classes,  and  the  qualification  of  teachers. 

In  the  presentation  of  material,  as  little  class  instruc- 
tion as  possible  should  be  given,  and  then  only  when 
such  instruction  meets  the  immediate  needs  of  a  large 
majority  of  the  boys,  or  when  it  is  related  to  some  sub- 
ject of  general  interest,  such  as  shop  talks,  or  talks  on 
excursions  or  current  topics. 

The  common  practice  is  to  devote  about  one  half  the 
time  to  shopwork  and  one  half  to  the  bookwork.  The 
apportionment  of  time  between  the  several  subjects, 
however,  should  be  as  flexible  as  possible.  Of  course, 
the  exigencies  of  program-making  will  demand  a  more 
or  less  hard-and-fast  division  of  time,  but  this  may  be 
varied  for  individuals.  For  example,  one  or  more  boys 
may  be  permitted  or  required  to  work  on  arithmetic  or 
science  or  drawing  during  the  shop  period,  especially  if 


APPROPRIATE  SUBJECT-MATTER  79 

that  arithmetic,  science,  or  drawing  is  immediately  re- 
lated to  the  particular  shopwork  in  hand,  and  perhaps 
needed  by  the  individual  to  explain  some  phases  of  his 
work.  In  short,  the  presentation  of  material  should  be 
made  with  as  much  reference  to  the  individual  as 
possible. 

Perhaps  no  single  feature  of  organization  affects 
the  success  of  prevocational  work  more  surely  than  the 
size  of  the  classes.  A  somewhat  common  practice,  but 
one  which  cannot  be  wholly  justified  or  commended,  is 
that  of  limiting  the  classes  in  shopwork  to  a  reasonable 
size  and  of  combining  two  shopwork  classes  under  one 
teacher  for  the  bookwork.  There  is  serious  doubt 
whether  the  bookwork  can  be  done  any  better  than  the 
shopwork  with  boys  of  this  type  grouped  in  large 
classes,  though  the  results,  or  rather  lack  of  results,  are 
more  apparent  where  accomplishment  is  measured  in 
visible  material.  At  all  events,  when  the  great  value  of 
the  related  bookwork  is  appreciated,  every  reasonable 
opportunity  will  be  afforded  for  conspicuous  success, 
and  a  small  class  will  constitute  one  of  the  best  of 
these  opportunities.  Thus,  whether  in  bookwork  or  shop- 
work,  the  classes  should  be  small  enough  to  enable  the 
teacher  to  do  much  individual  work.  These  pupils,  as 
previously  shown,  are  markedly  different,  and  no  one 
method  can  be  used  successfully  with  all. 

The  argument  will  be  made  that  the  small  classes 
are  too  expensive,  but  it  should  be  recalled  that  the  per 
capita  cost  of  the  high  school  is  sometimes  two  or  three 
times  that  of  the  grades.  These  children  are  entitled  to 
small  classes  because  they  are  essentially  of  secondary 
grade,  or  at  least  of  the  age  which  would  normally  admit 
them  to  the  smaller  classes  and  more  expensive  organi- 


80  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

zation  of  the  high  school.  They  also  deserve  special 
consideration  in  view  of  the  fact  that,  in  all  probability, 
they  will  spend  but  two  or  three  more  years  in  the  day 
school  before  going  out  to  assume  the  responsibility  of 
self-support. 

Furthermore,  an  inefficient  plan  is  expensive  at  any 
cost,  and  it  cannot  be  maintained  too  insistently  that 
unless  the  individual  can  be  reached  in  the  prevocational 
organization  the  plan  will  lose  the  greater  part  of  its 
effectiveness.  When  inaugurating  such  work  it  is  better 
to  achieve  signal  success  with  a  few  pupils  than  to 
conduct  classes  with  numbers  so  large  that  the  outcome 
is  doubtful. 

I%ially,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  only  suit- 
able teachers  be  employed  for  prevocational  classes.  As 
noted  in  a  previous  chapter,  they  should  be  selected 
with  great  care  and  because  of  their  peculiar  fitness  for 
the  work,  not  merely  because  they  are  available  or  be- 
cause they  must  be  given  a  position  somewhere  in  the 
system. 

The  shopwork  teacher  should  preferably  have  had 
real  shop  experience  and  should  be  a  competent  me- 
chanic. Nothing  impresses  these  boys  more  than  to  see 
that  a  man  "knows  his  business."  It  is  desirable  that 
he  be  also  "an  all-around  man,"  adaptable,  resourceful, 
and  interested  in  other  forms  of  constructive  work  be- 
sides his  own  specialty.  If  he  has  had  professional  train- 
ing and  teaching  experience  so  much  the  better,  but  it 
should  be  obvious  that  such  qualifications  are  not  com- 
mon and  that  they  generally  secure  a  superior  position 
for  the  man  who  possesses  them.  Such  men  are  less 
numerous  than  the  positions  which  are  open  to  them. 

In  most  instances,  under  present  conditions,  the  best 


APPROPRIATE  SUBJECT-MATTER  81 

results  will  be  attained  by  finding  a  local  man  of  the 
right  type  and  training  him  in  the  position.  The  train- 
ing should  include  careful  and  sympathetic  supervision 
by  the  principal  of  the  school,  attendance  at  teachers' 
meetings  and  conventions,  the  reading  of  pertinent  liter- 
ature, but  especially  the  closest  cooperation  with  the 
teacher  of  the  academic  work. 

Although  the  work  is  no  longer  in  the  experimental 
stage,  it  is  still  in  the  pioneer  period  of  its  development, 
and  the  same  degree  of  preparation  cannot  be  expected 
of  these  teachers  as  is  required  of  the  instructors  in  the 
regular  schools.  It  is  too  early  to  expect  the  normal 
schools  and  universities  to  supply  such  teachers  in 
sufficient  numbers.  These  institutions,  however,  are 
more  or  less  alive  to  the  situation,  and  several  of  them 
are  making  an  effort  to  train  shopwork  teachers  for 
prevocational  and  industrial  schools. 

The  bookwork  teacher  should  have  had  professional 
training  and  successful  teaching  experience  in  the  ele- 
mentary grades,  preferably  the  seventh  and  eighth.  It 
is  desirable,  however,  that  such  experience  should  not 
have  been  so  long  or  so  circumscribed  as  to  impress  him 
ineradicably  with  the  narrow  ideals  of  the  traditional 
school.  Furthermore,  success  in  the  regular  grades  can- 
not be  taken  as  conclusive  evidence  of  ability  to  cope 
with  the  problems  of  the  prevocational  class.  There 
are  many  teachers  who  succeed  measurably  in  teaching 
the  regular  school  work,  which  has  been  so  carefully 
"systematized,"  because  they  have  "learned  their 
trade."  They  know  their  subjects  and  all  the  details 
of  the  particular  portions  which  have  been  assigned  to 
their  grade.  They  are  familiar  with  the  peculiar  diffi- 
culties and  with  the  methods  or  devices  with  which 


82  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

those  difficulties  may  be  met.  It  is  easily  possible,  how- 
ever, that  such  a  teacher  might  fail  lamentably  with  a 
prevocational  class.  Here  are  needed  initiative,  alert- 
ness, resourcefulness,  cheerfulness,  originality,  and  a 
wide  interest.  Without  doubt  the  personal  characteris- 
tics of  these  teachers,  whether  they  teach  the  shopwork 
or  the  book  subjects,  are  of  far  greater  consequence  than 
their  professional  training  or  experience.  Unless  they 
possess  an  instinctive  love  of  children  and  a  sympathetic 
attitude  toward  their  idiosyncrasies,  they  would  be 
better  employed  elsewhere,  for  in  no  educational  posi- 
tion is  there  a  greater  demand  made  upon  one's  faith 
in  humanity  and  confidence  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
good  over  error  than  in  a  prevocational  class.  It  is 
therefore  upon  the  untiring  faithfulness  and  the  willing 
consecration  of  these  teachers  that  the  ultimate  success 
of  this  great  educational  advance  will  depend. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PHYSIOLOGY  AND   HYGIENE 

In  the  introductory  chapter  it  was  pointed  out  that 
the  purpose  of  prevocational  work  was  dual,  —  first,  to 
incite  intellectual  activity  by  means  of  a  new  and  more 
vital  interest  in  one  or  more  of  the  regular  school 
subjects,  and  second,  to  increase  the  pupil's  potential 
occupational  efficiency  as  an  insurance  against  incom- 
petency should  he  be  forced  into  work  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

If  properly  conducted  no  subjects  have  greater  possi- 
bilities in  both  respects  than  physiology  and  hygiene. 
Children  of  prevocational  age  may  easily  be  interested 
in  a  study  of  the  body  and  of  the  laws,  both  physical 
and  social,  which  govern  its  development  and  secure  the 
conservation  of  its  powers. 

At  first  thought  it  may  seem  unnecessary  to  present 
arguments  in  favor  of  introducing  the  study  of  physiol- 
ogy into  the  course  of  study  when  instruction  in  this 
subject  is  required  by  law  in  so  many  States.  It  should 
be  appreciated,  however,  that  physiology  is  seldom 
taught  to  the  pupils  with  whom  this  volume  is  dealing, 
such  instruction  being  reserved  for  the  grades  which 
they  rarely  reach,  or,  if  given  in  the  lower  grades,  being 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  make  little  appeal  to  the  children 
of  this  type  and  to  have  practically  no  effect  on  their 
mode  of  living.  Furthermore,  where  the  subject  is 
taught  to  industrial  classes  it  is  still  in  its  experimental 
stage,  which  fact  warrants  a  statement  of  our  principles 


84  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

as  well  as  of  our  practices.  We  would  give  briefly,  there- 
fore, the  reasons  why  this  instruction  is  peculiarly  perti- 
nent for  prevocational  pupils. 

The  study  of  physiology  is,  by  its  very  nature,  of 
genuine  interest  to  pupils  of  this  age,  and  this  interest 
may  be  utilized  in  leading  the  children,  not  only  to  take 
better  care  of  their  bodies,  but  to  appreciate  the  real 
value  of  other  sciences  which  are  more  or  less  closely 
related. 

The  study  of  hygiene  is  perhaps  even  more  effective 
as  a  means  of  developing  occupational  efficiency.  Much 
thought,  time,  and  money  have  been  expended  in  de- 
veloping courses  of  study  which  will  contribute  to 
the  pupil's  ability  to  take  his  place  in  the  ranks  of  the 
world's  workers.  There  are  no  means  of  evaluating  this 
training  in  terms  of  increased  efficiency,  though  careful 
observers  have  little  doubt  that  such  training  actually 
enables  the  pupil  to  find  his  place  in  industry  more 
quickly  after  leaving  school  and  to  fill  it  more  accept- 
ably. There  must  always  be  a  question,  however,  as  to 
just  how  great  the  advantage  of  this  training  may  be 
over  that  afforded  by  the  traditional  school  courses. 
But  even  a  superficial  examination  of  the  facts  will  con- 
vince one  that  any  improvement  in  the  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  industrial  worker  will  certainly  increase  his 
efficiency.  Improper  diet,  unhygienic  housing  and  work- 
ing conditions,  and  any  infringement  of  the  laws  of 
physical  life  result  in  a  sapping  of  energy  and  a  loss  of 
time  from  sickness,  which  often  prove  a  serious  handi- 
cap in  the  competitive  struggle  with  those  more  liberally 
endowed  by  nature  with  strong  bodies,  and  by  circum- 
stances with  more  invigorating  surroundings  either  at 
home  or  in  the  work-place. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  85 

While  the  efficiency  and  the  period  of  usefulness  of 
the  workingman  depend  more  largely  upon  his  health 
than  upon  any  other  one  thing,  he  rarely  has  any 
adequate  knowledge  of  the  effect  which  his  mode  of  life 
and  his  surroundings  have  upon  his  physical  health  and 
strength.  It  would  seem  natural  that  the  people's 
schools,  especially  those  which  exist  primarily  to  secure 
greater  efficiency  in  the  future  industrial  worker,  should 
devote  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  a  subject  of  such 
vital  importance.  An  examination  of  the  courses  of 
study  in  the  various  industrial  schools  will  convince  one, 
however,  that  little  consideration  is  usually  given  this 
subject.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  any  study  or 
training  which  tends  to  improve  the  pupil's  health,  or  to 
make  him  more  intelligent  regarding  the  laws  which  so- 
ciety has  enacted  for  the  benefit  of  child  or  adult  workers, 
will  possess  real  vocational  value.  As  it  will  quite  as 
certainly  contribute  to  the  pupil's  culture,  the  study  of 
physiology  and  hygiene  is  eminently  suitable  for  all 
pre  vocational  classes. 

Authorities  differ  as  to  the  best  method  of  teaching 
the  subject  and  especially  as  to  whether  a  study  of 
physiology  should  precede  instruction  in  hygiene.  Tol- 
man,  in  his  excellent  book  Hygiene  for  the  Worker,1  be- 
gins his  preface  with  this  sentence:  "The  teaching  of 
hygiene  fails  when  it  is  founded  upon  the  assumption 
that  a  knowledge  of  anatomy  is  necessary." 

Ritchie,  in  the  preface  to  his  Human  Physiology, 
says :  — 

Neither  can  the  desired  end  be  reached  by  teaching  the 
rules  of  health  without  an  anatomical  and  physiological  basis; 

1  William  H.  Tolman,  Hygiene  for  the  Worker,  American  Book 
Company. 


86  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

for  without  such  a  basis,  hygiene  is  an  intangible  and  an  elu- 
sive subject. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  the  course  in  hygiene 
should  be  preceded,  wherever  possible,  by  an  elemen- 
tary and  eminently  practical  study  of  anatomy  and  the 
functions  of  the  various  organs  of  the  body.  Some  of 
these  reasons  may  be  stated  as  follows :  — 

1.  Unless  it  is  based  on  some  knowledge  of  physiol- 
ogy, hygiene  must  be  taught  through  mere  memorizing 
and  not  through  processes  of  reasoning. 

2.  To  arouse  the  young  worker's  interest  in  hygiene 
without  giving  him  some  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
different  organs  of  his  body  may  lead  him  to  fall  a  prey 
to  the  first  quack  doctor  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact. 
If  the  technical  and  scientific  terms  are  avoided  alto- 
gether, the  pupil  is  likely  to  be  awed  or  unduly  im- 
pressed by  the  first  person  whom  he  hears  glibly  using 
them  on  the  street  corners. 

3.  For  children  of  the  age  with  which  we  are  dealing 
in  this  volume  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  physi- 
ology will  be  more  interesting  than  hygiene  and  therefore 
should  precede  and  vitalize  it.  Dr.  Peter  Sandiford, 
in  The  Mental  and  Physical  Life  of  School  Children, 
says:  — 

Curiosity  about  the  mechanism  of  the  human  body  does  not 
awaken  before  adolescence,  hence  it  is  worse  than  useless  to 
try  to  teach  physiology  to  ten-year-old  children.  But  physiol- 
ogy to  fifteen-year-olds  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  subjects 
in  the  curriculum. 

4.  There  are  many  devices  for  teaching  physiology 
which  make  a  strong  appeal  to  motor-minded  children. 
For  example,  the  mechanics  of  the  respiratory  system 
may  be  shown  by  means  of  a  glass  tube,  the  air  pump, 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  87 

and  a  small  rubber  bag.*  The  Human  Mechanism,  by 
Hough  and  Sedgwick,  will  be  found  helpful  in  dealing 
with  the  various  systems  of  the  body  from  a  mechanical 
standpoint. 

A  study  of  such  physiology  as  time  will  permit,  to- 
gether with  the  personal  hygiene  which  quite  naturally 
grows  out  of  the  discussions,  leads  logically  to  some 
consideration  of  "industrial  hygiene "  which  ought  to  be 
of  interest  to  all  future  industrial  workers.  It  can  be 
made  especially  valuable  to  them  through  the  assistance 
which  it  may  give  in  choosing  an  occupation,  or,  per- 
haps, in  refraining  from  doing  so.  Such  a  study  should 
seek  to  inform  the  children  about  their  own  physical 
powers,  or  lack  of  such,  and  it  should  also  show  that  the 
peculiar  advantages  or  dangers  of  a  given  position  ought 
to  be  considered  as  carefully  as  circumstances  will  per- 
mit before  any  occupation  is  entered.  Gradually  the 
schools  are  coming  to  assume  some  responsibility  in  this 
matter.  Miss  Florence  M.  Marshall,  principal  of  the 
Manhattan  Trade  School  for  Girls,  says,  "It  would  be 
little  short  of  criminal  neglect  to  permit  a  girl  to  train 
for  a  standing  trade  who  has  a  flat  foot."  Letting  this 
serve  as  a  simple  illustration  of  the  two  factors  involved 
—  the  physical  condition  of  the  worker  and  the  physical 
demands  of  the  occupation  —  it  is  clear  that  a  variety 
of  data  can  be  secured  which  the  teacher  may  classify 
and  present  as  best  suits  the  educational  and  economic 
conditions  of  his  own  pupils.  Further  illustrations  are 
given  in  one  of  the  class  talks  outlined  later. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  industrial  hygiene  to-day 

1  Hough  and  Sedgwick,  The  Human  Mechanism  (Ginn  &  Co.), 
"  Mechanics  of  Breathing  Movements  "  (p.  169);  "  Mechanics  of  the 
Heart  Beats"  (p.  138);  "Apparatus  to  Illustrate  Circulation"  (p.  152). 


88  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

deals  more  with  disease  than  with  health.  Since  its  line 
of  attack  is  to  abolish  unhygienic  conditions,  it  must 
necessarily  call  especial  attention  to  the  dangers  and 
diseases  which  inhere  in  so  many  occupations.  It  may 
appear,  therefore,  that  the  details  presented  herewith 
serve  as  warnings  to  avoid  certain  positions  rather  than 
as  guides  to  suitable  occupations.  It  is  sometimes 
affirmed  that,  since  children  must  enter  more  or  less 
dangerous  and  debilitating  occupations,  there  is  little 
value  in  taking  this  merely  negative  attitude  and  in 
warning  them  against  doing  so  —  that  the  more  impor- 
tant thing  is  to  instruct  young  people  how  to  minimize 
the  dangers  and  the  harmful  effects  of  their  occupations. 
It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  society  is  regu- 
lating more  carefully  year  by  year  or  even  prohibiting 
the  entry  of  children  into  dangerous  trades,  and  is  also 
6eeking  to  reduce  the  dangers.  The  surest  way  to  induce 
industry  to  ameliorate  these  unfortunate  conditions  is 
to  put  an  embargo  on  the  supply  of  necessary  labor 
or,  by  other  means,  to  render  the  practices  expensive. 
The  truth  of  this  statement  is  amply  sustained  by  the 
attitude  of  employers  toward  the  "safety  first"  move- 
ment after  the  passage  of  a  workingman's  compensation 
law. 

There  is  no  economic  necessity  for  this  species  of 
human  sacrifice,  and  the  schools  should  ally  themselves 
uncompromisingly  with  all  other  child-saving  agencies 
in  its  curtailment  or  its  entire  abolition.  Of  course,  for 
some  time  to  come  children  will  enter  such  occupations, 
and  so  the  teacher  should  present  also  the  positive  side 
of  the  question  and  show  the  potential  workers  how  to 
protect  themselves  in  every  possible  way. 

While,  as  above  stated,  a  general  interest  in  the  sub- 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  89 

ject  may  be  assumed,  it  is  desirable  to  vitalize  or  popu- 
larize this  interest  by  some  initial  lessons  intended  to 
show  the  children  the  economic  or  money  value  of  the 
proper  care  of  the  body.  The  following  are  suggested  as 
sources  of  material  for  such  lessons: 

Bulletins  of  the  National  Safety  Council,  Continental 
and  Commercial  Bank  Building,  Chicago.  There  are 
hundreds  of  employers  who  are  members  of  this  council. 
They  receive  weekly  bulletins  relating  to  the  prevention 
of  industrial  accidents  and  diseases  as  well  as  those 
common  to  all  walks  of  life.  The  bulletins  are  posted  in 
the  factories  or  other  places  of  employment  for  the  in- 
formation and  guidance  of  the  workmen.  Membership 
may  be  secured  by  the  payment  of  an  annual  fee  of 
$5.00.  A  copy  of  one  of  these  bulletins  follows:  — 

Distributed  by  National  Safety  Council,  Chicago,  III. 
To  All  Our  Employees: 

Concerning  Pneumonia 

The  Pneumonia  season  has  arrived. 

Not  because  the  weather  is  colder  —  Arctic  explorers  do  not 
get  Pneumonia  until  they  return  to  "Civilization/* 

Not  because  of  raw  winds,  though  these  chill  the  body  and 
thereby  reduce  resistance  to  the  disease. 

Pneumonia  comes  at  this  season  because  people  close  doors  and 
tvindows  to  keep  out  cold  air,  and  thereby  condemn  themselves  to 
breathe  foul  air  in  which  the  Pneumonia  germ  rejoices  and  multi- 
plies. 

Keep  your  houses  as  warm  as  you  like.  People  in  this  country 
are  accustomed  to  warm  rooms,  and  it  would  be  foolish  to  make 
a  sudden  change. 

But  see  that  the  place  where  you  live  and  work  has  as  much 
fresh  air  as  possible. 

A  closed  window  shuts  sickness  IN,  not  OUT. 

The  Sanitol  Educational  Company,  St.  Louis,  Mis- 
souri, publishes  a  set  of  drawings  by  H.  Reichard  which 


90  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

show  the  growth  of  the  teeth  and  indicate  how  necessary 
it  is  to  care  for  them. 

With  judicious  use,  an  advertisement  published  by 
Colgate  &  Company,  Jersey  City,  New  Jersey,  entitled 
Dental  Hygiene,  will  be  found  valuable. 

The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company,  New 
York,  distributes,  free  of  cost,  pamphlets  on  The  Health 
of  the  Worker,  First  Aid  in  the  Home,  Milk,  Teeth, 
Tonsils,  and  Adenoids.  This  fact  clearly  indicates  the 
money  value  of  preserving  the  health,  and  the  pupils  will 
find  in  the  pamphlets  much  excellent  advice. 

As  mentioned  above,  the  presentation  of  such  ma- 
terial as  this  impresses  the  pupils  with  the  fact  that  it 
"  pays  "  to  keep  well. 

Another  method  of  giving  a  practical  introduction  to 
the  subject  of  physiology  is  to  discuss  industrial  fatigue. 
In  this  connection  the  teacher  would  do  well  to  consult 
Miss  Goldmark's  authoritative  work,  Fatigue  and  Effi- 
ciency.1 Answers  to  questions  like  the  following  may  be 
brought  out  in  the  course  of  informal  discussions  sup- 
plemented by  assigned  readings  from  a  few  reference 
books,  in  which  case  particular  pages  and  paragraphs 
should  be  selected  to  simplify  the  work:  — 

Questions 

1.  What  is  fatigue?   (Goldmark,  p.  22;  Hough  and  Sedg- 
wick, p.  55.) 

2.  Of  what  importance  is  its  study  to  the  industrial  worker? 
S.  To  what  is  muscular  contraction  due? 

4.  Can  it  be  shown  that  this  contraction  of  the  muscles  is  a 
form  of  combustion? 

5.  What  is  necessary  for  combustion? 

6.  How  is  oxygen  brought  to  muscles? 

1  Josephine  Goldmark,  Fatigue  and  Efficiency.  Published  by 
Charities  Publication  Committee,  105  East  22d  Street,  New  York. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  91 

7.  How  is  this  oxygen  carried  in  the  blood? 

8.  What  part  in  this  process  is  played  by  the  food  we  eat? 

9.  What  are  the  elements  in  the  carbohydrates? 

10.  What  are  the  results  of  the  union  of  oxygen  and  glycogen? 
(Goldmark,  p.  22.) 

11.  What  is  energy? 

12.  What  becomes  of  the  heat? 

13.  What  becomes  of  the  carbon  dioxide  and  other  wastes? 

14.  What  is  meant  by  the  fatigue  poison?  (Hough  and  Sedg- 
wick, p.  60.) 

15.  What  is  the  remedy  for  fatigue?   (Goldmark,  p.  25.) 

*  Although  there  are  no  text  or  reference  books  exactly- 
suited  to  the  needs  of  the  prevocational  work  in  this 
subject,  the  following  are  recommended  for  use  in  the 
above  and  in  similar  lessons :  Good  Health,  Emergencies, 
The  Body  at  Work,  Town  and  City,  Control  of  Body  and 
Mind,  by  Luther  Halsey  Gulick  (Ginn  &  Co.) ;  Primer  of 
Hygiene,  Primer  of  Sanitation,  Human  Physiology,  and 
Primer  of  Physiology,  by  John  W.  Ritchie  (World  Book 
Co.);  The  Woods  Hutchinson  Health  Series,  Book  n. 
(Houghton  Mifflin  Co.). 

The  practical  phases  of  the  question  of  fatigue  may 
be  made  very  real  to  the  pupils  by  telling  them  of  the 
studies  of  accidents  in  factories  and  of  their  relation  to 
fatigue.  The  results  of  one  such  study  are  given  here- 
with. 

It  might  be  claimed  with  justice  that  eternal  vigilance 
is  the  price  of  safety  in  some  industries.  It  is  necessary 
that  the  operative  come  to  his  work  with  mind  alert  and 
muscles  under  good  control.  That  he  fails  to  present 
himself  in  this  condition  accounts  for  many  industrial 
accidents,  as  the  following  will  show:  — 

Statistics  covering  accidents  in  the  factories  of  Illi- 
nois for  a  period  of  one  year  show  that  between  the  hours 


92  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

of  eight  and  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  there  were  120 
accidents,  and  that  this  number  steadily  and  progres- 
sively increased  until,  during  the  hour  between  eleven 
o'clock  and  noon,  257  accidents  were  recorded.  In  the 
hour  following  the  noon  rest,  or  between  one  and  two 
o'clock,  there  were  111,  the  number  again  increasing 
hour  by  hour  until,  between  four  and  five  o'clock,  the 
maximum  of  260  accidents  was  reached.  The  most 
reasonable  conclusion  is  that  fatigue  is  responsible  for 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  accidents  in  the  late  hours 
over  the  number  in  the  early  hours,  and  raises  the  ques- 
tion why  the  first  morning  hour  should  not  show  a  much 
lower  record  than  it  does.  The  difference  between  the 
early  morning  hour  and  the  early  afternoon  hour  is 
comparatively  slight,  but  it  is  highly  significant  in  that 
it  points  to  possible  personal  negligence  on  the  part  of 
the  operatives  between  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  and 
the  hour  of  beginning  work  the  next  morning.  It  brings 
to  the  front  the  subject  of  social  conditions  in  general, 
and  opens  the  questions  of  personal  hygiene  in  its  rela- 
tion to  sleeping-quarters,  habits  of  eating,  drinking, 
smoking,  and  to  the  nature  of  such  recreation  as  may 
have  been  taken. 

In  this  connection  it  is  perfectly  feasible  to  teach  the 
pupils  something  about  the  workingmen's  compensa- 
tion laws.  While  this  may  not  be  "hygiene,"  it  grows 
directly  out  of  "industrial  hygiene,"  as  it  is  a  part  of 
that  movement  which  society  is  making  to  conserve  the 
human  element  which  enters,  as  such  an  important  fac- 
tor, into  the  industrial  problem.  The  whole  "safety- 
first"  movement  is  the  result  of  this  interest  in  conserv- 
ing human  life,  and  valuable  material  can  generally 
be  obtained  from  large  manufacturing  establishments 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  93 

where  the  movement  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of 
one  individual  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  reduc- 
ing accidents. 

This  may  seem  a  rather  difficult  subject  for  the  chil- 
dren of  prevocational  age,  but,  in  reality,  is  it  more  so 
than  much  of  the  technical  grammar  and  abstract 
mathematics  which  we  have  required  children  of  this  age 
to  study?  Does  it  not  come  nearer  to  life,  as  they  know 
it,  than  much  of  the  history  and  geography?  And  is  it 
not  the  most  reasonable  foundation  for  such  practical 
sociology  and  citizenship  as  the  young  industrial  worker 
can  possibly  grasp?  Concrete  material  for  the  discussion 
of  this  question  can  be  had  from  many  sources,  but  the 
bulletins  of  the  American  Association  for  Labor  Legis- 
lation will  be  found  sufficiently  suggestive  for  the  in- 
terested teacher. 

In  addition  to  the  information  which  the  pupils  gain 
from  text  and  reference  books,  from  what  may  be  called 
commercial  material,  and  from  personal  observation,  it 
will  be  necessary  for  the  teacher  to  give  class  talks  him- 
self or  to  secure,  from  time  to  time,  the  voluntary  assist- 
ance of  men  and  women  from  the  field.  As  an  example 
of  the  kind  of  discussions  which  will  be  found  interest- 
ing and  valuable  the  two  following  are  submitted. * 
They  are  adapted  from  Tolman's  Hygiene  for  the  Worker. 

What  Kind  of  Position  should  I  seek  f 

Before  taking  any  position  the  young  worker  should  first 
submit  to  a  thorough  medical  examination,  such  as  is  given 

1  Additional  material  of  this  nature  may  be  found  in  such  refer- 
ences as  the  following:  Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  Danger  oils  Trades  (Lon- 
don: Murray);  William  H.  Tolman,  Safety  (Harper  &  Brothers); 
George  H.  Ireland,  The  Preventable  Causes  of  Disease,  Injury  and 
Death  in  American  Manufactories  and  Work-Houses  (American  Pub- 
lic Health  Association). 


94  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

in  many  schools  to-day.  This  would  furnish  data  regarding 
eyes,  ears,  chest,  nose,  throat,  lungs,  kidneys,  back,  hips,  legs, 
and  feet.  If  the  individual  is  flat-  or  narrow-chested  or  afflicted 
with  catarrhal  or  bronchial  troubles,  he  should  not  work  at 
file-cutting,  painting,  glass  and  metal  grinding  and  polishing, 
stone-cutting,  paper-hanging,  gilding,  some  kinds  of  wood- 
working, grinding  and  cutting  of  mother-of-pearl  and  bone, 
nor  in  earthenware  and  china  factories,  because  of  the  harm- 
ful dusts  resulting  from  the  processes  employed  in  these  in- 
dustries. Neither  should  one  seek  employment  as  cigar-maker, 
tailor,  shoemaker,  engraver,  or  jeweler,  because  of  the  stoop- 
ing position  which  must  be  taken  in  such  work,  thus  cramping 
the  lungs.  Such  persons  should  seek  out-of-doors  employment 
as  far  as  possible. 

Persons  whose  hearts  are  weak  should  not  engage  in  occu- 
pations involving  great  strain  upon  this  organ.  They  should 
not  take  work  where  there  is  much  lifting  or  carrying  of  heavy 
loads,  or  where  there  is  a  constant  strain  on  certain  sets  of 
muscles.  Such  persons  are  not  physically  fitted  to  become 
bakers,  brewers,  butchers,  coopers,  metal-grinders,  millers, 
carpenters,  weavers,  stone  masons,  or  machine-operators. 
They  should  engage  in  some  light  muscular  work,  but  never 
neglect  daily  exercise. 

Those  having  weak  or  inflamed  eyes  should  avoid  dusty 
trades,  or  those  in  which  one  comes  in  contact  with  heat, 
steam,  vapors,  and  fumes.  Persons  who  have  vision  in  only 
one  eye  should  not  select  an  occupation  where  they  are  obliged 
to  make  accurate  measurements  on  fine  work  requiring  great 
care.  Watchmakers,  engravers,  tailors,  dressmakers,  chemists, 
and  draftsmen  all  require  good  eyesight,  as  the  strain  on  their 
eyes  is  greater  than  in  most  other  trades. 

Persons  who  have  broken-down  arches  or  who  suffer  from 
varicose  veins  should  not  select  occupations  where  they  are 
obliged  to  stand  for  hours  at  a  time.  They  should  not  become 
motormen,  conductors,  or  bakers,  nor  seek  work  in  stores  or 
laundries. 

Bricklayers,  tanners,  and  butchers  are  subject  to  skin  dis- 
eases through  the  handling  of  cement,  hides,  and  much  hot 
water.  Persons  afflicted  with  any  inflammation  of  the  skin 
should  not  engage  in  these  occupations.  Those  who  are  liable 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  95 

to  suffer  from  eczema  should  be  careful  not  to  come  in  contact 
with  acids,  dyestuffs,  and  other  materials  which  might  in- 
crease the  trouble  and  make  it  necessary  to  give  up  the  work 
entirely.  Such  persons  are  not  fitted  to  become  bakers,  brick- 
layers, painters,  lacquerers,  polishers,  cooks,  or  laundry- 
workers,  or  to  do  any  work  where  the  hands  are  kept  long  in 
water. 

Persons  whose  hands  perspire  freely  cannot  do  good  work 
as  engravers,  watchmakers,  fine-instrument  makers,  or  as 
workers  in  any  of  the  fine  metals.  They  are  particularly  un- 
fitted for  the  handling  of  delicate  materials,  such  as  laces  and 
linens,  and  for  such  fine,  clean  handwork  as  millinery,  em- 
broidery, sewing,  bookbinding,  and  fine  leatherwork. 

Industrial  Poisoning 

Industrial  hygiene  treats  also  of  the  various  industrial 
" poisons"  and  of  how  to  protect  the  worker  from  their  harm- 
ful effects.  One  illustration  only  will  be  given  here,  namely, 
lead  poisoning. 

Of  all  the  metals  employed  in  the  arts  and  industries,  none 
is  so  widely  and  generally  applicable  as  lead.  Potters,  cutlers, 
file-cutters,  glaziers,  lead-workers,  painters,  operators  in  elec- 
tric works,  typographers,  plumbers,  glass-workers,  earthen- 
ware- and  tile-makers,  lead-foil-makers,  shoe-finishers,  em- 
ployees in  mirror  and  silvering  works,  some  chemical  workers, 
and  those  who  wash  lead-workers'  clothing  are  all  subject  to 
lead  poisoning. 

Lead  is  a  subtle  poison.  Most  of  its  salts  have  no  unpleas- 
ant taste  or  odor,  are  easily  soluble,  and  produce  their  baneful 
effects  so  gradually  and  insidiously  that  the  worker  often  be- 
comes seriously  ill  without  any  preliminary  warning.  The 
symptoms  need  not  be  discussed  here,  but  the  way  or  ways  in 
which  the  poison  enters  the  human  system  and  the  means 
which  may  be  taken  to  safeguard  the  worker  will  be  noted 
briefly. 

The  metal  gains  an  entrance  to  the  body  through  the  respi- 
ratory organs,  the  digestive  canal,  or,  occasionally,  the  skin. 
Inhaled  as  dust,  it  is  drawn  into  the  respiratory  passages, 
where  it  is  dissolved  and  passed  into  the  blood,  or  it  may  be 
suspended  in  the  saliva  and  swallowed.    On  reaching  the 


96  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

stomach  it  is  acted  upon  by  the  hydrochloric  acid  of  the  gastric 
juice,  converted  into  a  soluble  salt,  and  absorbed. 

To  prevent  lead  poisoning  the  worker  should  keep  himself 
in  as  good  general  condition  as  possible,  exercise  care  in  the 
selection  of  food,  avoiding  acid  fruits  and  using  plenty  of 
milk,  come  to  his  work  with  his  stomach  well  filled,  and  espe- 
cially practice  rigid  cleanliness  on  leaving  the  works  and  be- 
fore eating.  A  few  months  ago  the  Pullman  Company,  by  the 
simple  expedient  of  compelling  the  employees  to  bathe  their 
hands  and  faces  in  hot  water  for  ten  minutes,  both  before 
luncheon  and  before  going  home,  reduced  its  cases  of  incipient 
lead  poisoning  among  its  painters  from  seventy-five  to  none. 
One  white-lead  manufacturer  advocates  giving  a  free  break- 
fast to  the  operatives  before  the  beginning  of  the  day's  work, 
while  a  certain  British  tile  works  furnishes  hot  milk  free  every 
morning.  Cleanliness  with  regard  to  the  clothing  is  also  im- 
portant. In  Great  Britain  the  employer  of  glaze-workers,  for 
example,  is  required  to  furnish  each  of  his  men  with  a  full  suit 
of  washable  clothes  and  to  wash  and  mend  them  at  his  own 
expense  every  week. 

Some  of  the  dramatic  incidents  in  the  warfare  which 
modern  society  has  waged  against  the  more  deadly  of 
the  ancient  diseases  may  be  made  the  subjects  of  valu- 
able class  talks  by  the  teacher  on  the  general  topic 
"Public  Health  a  Public  Duty."  The  following  material 
is  given  as  a  suggestion  to  the  teacher  of  a  few  of  the 
illustrations  which  may  be  cited  of  the  conquest  over 
disease,  and  of  sources  from  which  similar  information 
can  be  drawn.  The  discussion  given  here  is  not  intended 
for  the  pupils  themselves,  but  the  teacher  will  have  no 
difficulty  in  adapting  to  the  requirements  of  his  class 
the  ideas  which  are  advanced. 

Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine,  in  Misery  and  Its  Causes, 
says:  — 

The  health  department  and  the  public  schools,  physicians 
and  social  workers  cry  aloud  from  the  house-tops  the  value  of 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  97 

fresh  air;  of  simple,  inexpensive,  nourishing  food;  of  exercise 
in  the  open  air;  of  the  practice  of  thorough  mastication;  of 
temperance  in  diet  and  of  abstinence  from  drugs  and  strong 
drink.  But  people  are  slow  to  act  upon  these  counsels,  and 
they  destroy  foolishly  and  recklessly  their  most  valuable  per- 
sonal asset  next  to  good  character:  viz.,  their  health.  Eco- 
nomic necessity  excuses  some,  but  only  a  very  little,  of  this 
improvidence.1 

Perhaps  one  reason  why  the  people  are  so  slow  to 
join  whole-heartedly  in  the  crusade  against  disease  is 
because  there  still  remains  something  of  the  mediaeval 
attitude  toward  "the  shocks  that  flesh  is  heir  to," 
accepting  disease  as  natural  and  inevitable  or  even  as 
a  just  punishment  for  wrong  doing,  or  a  "visitation  of 
Providence."  There  seems  also  to  be  a  belief  that  men 
were  more  healthy  in  "the  good  old  days"  before  the 
modern  methods  of  fighting  disease  by  public  statutes 
were  inaugurated. 

In  all  ages  there  appear  to  have  been  some  who  be- 
lieved that  health  was  natural  and  that  disease  was  the 
result  of  wrong  living,  and  in  modern  times,  as  can  be 
shown  by  the  lowered  death-rate,  society  has  won  many 
a  conflict  with  the  ancient  enemy  by  enlisting  the  serv- 
ices of  science.  The  following  facts  attest  the  truth  of 
these  statements :  — 

Rome  and  Carthage  paved  their  streets,  built  sewers, 
and  drained  swamps  to  make  their  cities  habitable.  A 
later-day  neglect  brought  to  Europe  frequent  ravages 
of  pestilence.  Such  epidemics  are  reported  for  the 
years  550,  1000,  1345,  1350,  1485,  1528,  and  1665.  The 
death-roll  for  the  Black  Death  in  the  years  1345  and 
1350  numbered  millions.   China  is  said  to  have  lost  at 

1  E.  T.  Devine,  Misery  and  its  Causes  (Macmillan  Company, 
1911),  p.  74. 


98  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

that  time  13,000,000.  Paris  lost  50,000,  and  London 
and  Venice  each  100,000.1 

Erasmus  was  among  the  first  to  preach  that  filth  was 
the  cause  of  these  epidemics  when  he  rejected  the 
divine  origin  of  the  sweating  sickness  in  1458-1518  and 
attributed  it  to  the  unclean  habits  of  the  English  and 
the  poor  ventilation  of  their  houses. 

Pasteur  says:  "It  is  in  the  power  of  man  to  cause 
the  parasitic  maladies  to  disappear  from  the  surface 
of  the  globe,  if,  as  I  am  convinced,  the  doctrine  of  spon- 
taneous generation  is  a  chimera." 

Dr.  Evans  says  a  $10  per-capita  health  administra- 
tion continued  for  fifteen  years  should  eliminate  con- 
sumption, smallpox,  diphtheria,  and  typhoid;  should 
greatly  lessen  scarlet  fever;  should  halve  the  baby 
death-rate;  should  halve  poverty  and  materially  de- 
crease crime;  and  should  increase  the  efficiency  of 
labor.2 

Formerly  historians  have  been  too  much  occupied 
with  kings,  generals,  dynasties  and  battles  to  give  con- 
sideration to  mortality  tables  or  to  causes  of  death  other 
than  the  sword,  although  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that, 
even  in  times  of  great  wars,  more  soldiers  die  or  are 
disabled  by  disease  than  by  the  casualties  of  the  battle- 
field. 

In  recent  years,  however,  society  has  taken  cogni- 
zance of  the  heavy  toll  which  disease  has  levied,  and 
has  made  some  notable  crusades  against  it  with  such 
battle-cries  as:  "No  Mosquitoes  —  No  Yellow  Fever"; 
"No  Rats  — No  Plague." 

1  Municipal  Sanitation,  Pennsylvania  Health  Bulletin,  January, 
1913. 

■  City  Club  of  Chicago.  Bulletin  (1911),  pp.  1-18. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  99 

In  1898  Ross  discovered  that  malaria  is  transmitted 
by  mosquitoes.  In  1900  Walter  Reed,  of  the  United 
States  Army,  confirmed  the  Finlay  theory  of  the  trans- 
mission of  yellow  fever.  At  the  time  of  Reed's  discov- 
ery fever  had  prevailed  in  Havana  continuously  for  one 
hundred  and  forty  years.  For  half  a  century  it  had 
produced  an  average  of  two  deaths  a  day  in  a  single 
city.  To-day,  however,  a  more  efficient  sanitary  organi- 
zation is  not  to  be  found  in  America,  if,  indeed,  in  the 
whole  world,  than  is  maintained  in  Cuba.  In  Havana, 
taking  a  five-year  period  dating. from  1893,  the  deaths 
from  yellow  fever,  malaria,  and  smallpox  amounted  to 
sixteen  per  cent  of  the  total  deaths  of  the  city.  What  a 
contrast  with  a  similar  period  dating  from  1903,  when 
the  deaths  from  these  three  diseases  combined  amounted 
to  only  .72  per  cent! l 

Memphis  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1878  had  an 
epidemic  of  yellow  fever  that  devastated  the  city,  not- 
withstanding that  one  half  of  the  people  fled  at  its 
approach.  In  fact,  the  yellow-fever  problem  weighed 
heavily  on  the  prosperity  of  the  entire  South  and 
crippled  its  best  efforts  at  development.  The  story  of 
its  conquest  by  the  expedient  of  exterminating  the  mos- 
quito which  transmitted  the  disease  is  well  known  to 
all.  It  is  a  lesson  which  should  not  be  forgotten.2 

In  Canton  in  1894  an  epidemic  of  plague  broke  out 
which  in  that  city  alone  killed  180,000  people.  Two 
years  later  it  reached  Bombay,  and  Dr.  Blue,  of  the 
United  States  Marine  Hospital  Service,  writing  for  the 

1  Dr.  Hiram  Byrd,  Progress  of  Sanitation  in  Florida.  The  Record 
Company,  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  1911. 

2  W.  C.  Gorgas,  Report  of  the  Department  of  Sanitation  of  the  Isth- 
mian Canal  Commission  for  the  Year  1912.  Washington,  1913. 


100  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Los  Angeles  Times,  July  27,  1912,  said  that  half  a 
million  beings  were  dying  of  plague  annually  in  India. 
Contrast  this  with  the  situation  in  San  Francisco.  In 
1907  there  were  five  hundred  deaths  from  plague  in 
that  city,  but  the  local  and  federal  health  officers, 
aided  by  thousands  of  enterprising  citizens,  undertook 
to  destroy  the  rat.  The  work  was  begun  in  1907  and 
was  carried  out  so  thoroughly  that  in  a  few  months  the 
rats  were  exterminated  and  the  epidemic  was  brought 
to  an  end.1 

A  notable  fact  is  that  a  decrease  in  the  death-rate  of 
children  under  five  years  of  age  has  been  accomplished. 
Some  interesting  tables  and  other  matter  relative  to 
this  subject  are  to  be  found  in  The  Woods  Hutchinson 
Health  Series,  Book  n.  (Houghton  Mifflin  Co.).  The 
Educational  Series,  No.  21  (Board  of  Health,  Chi- 
cago), is  especially  instructive.  Among  its  various 
charts  is  one  showing  that,  contrary  to  popular  belief, 
the  immigrant  mother  knows  far  less  about  the  proper 
care  of  babies  than  does  the  better-educated  native 
mother,  the  ratio  of  the  deaths  of  the  babies  of  the  two 
classes  being  as  125  to  14. 

In  regard  to  the  death-rate  among  adults,  Fred  L. 
Hoffman,  statistician  for  the  Prudential  Life  Insurance 

1  William  DuPuy  and  E.  T.  Brewster,  "Our  Duel  with  the  Rat," 
in  McClure's  Magazine,  May,  1910. 

L.  E.  Coper,  A  Word  to  Ship  Captains  about  Quarantine.  Govern- 
ment Printing  Office,  Washington,  1912. 

This  contains  — 

(1)  Symptoms  of  plague, 
(a)  Bubonic  form. 
(6)  Pneumonia  form, 
(c)  Quick  Black  Death. 

(2)  Descriptions  of  rats. 

(3)  Methods  of  killing  rats. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  101 

Company,  gives  a  table1  showing  tfrat  tne  greatest,  num- 
ber of  deaths  in  the  registration  ares,  of  \hp  TJnited 
States  are  from  diseases  which  result  from  bad  air  and 
bad  or  poorly  prepared  food.  That  these  causes  should 
be  made  the  subject  of  extensive  study  is  evident. 

Burton  J.  Hendrick,  in  his  article  on  the  "  Pure  Food 
Law,"  in  McClure's  Magazine  for  March,  1915,  presents 
facts  concerning  the  uses  and  abuses  of  the  Pure  Food 
Law,  together  with  an  account  of  the  employment  of 
poisonous  dyes,  flavorings,  and  other  injurious  ingredi- 
ents in  the  manufacture  of  candy,  ice-creams,  and 
many  foods  of  which  children  are  the  principal  con- 
sumers. The  United  States  Supreme  Court  decision  in 
favor  of  the  use  of  bleach  in  the  manufacture  of  flour 
and  the  repeal  of  the  Pure  Food  Law,  to  take  effect  in 
June,  1916,  are  facts  of  vital  current  interest.  This 
article  was  used  to  excellent  advantage,  with  one  pre- 
vocational  class,  as  a  basis  for  several  lessons  on  the 
Pure  Food  Law.  If  further  study  of  foods  is  found  de- 
sirable, good  material  will  be  found  in  The  Woods 
Hutchinson  Health  Series  (listed  elsewhere)  which  con- 
tains Dr.  Hutchinson's  classification  of  foods  under 
'Coal,  Kindling,  and  Paper,"  together  with  suggestions 
for  simple  experiments  to  be  used  in  testing  foods  for 
this  classification. 

1  Principal  Causes  of  Death  in  the  Registration  Areas  of  the  United 
States,  1908-1912. 

Disease  Number  R^ooo 

Tuberculosis 431,118  15.9 

Heart  disease 421,580  15.5 

Pneumonia 369,966  13.6 

Intestinal  disease 345,186  12.7 

Nephritis 265,665  9.8 

Accidents t 230,679  8.5 


102  PREVOCATJONAL  EDUCATION 

The  most  important  and  the  ultimate  purpose  of  all 
thi's-  work  is,  of  course,  to  make  good  citizens.  The 
employee  often  fails  to  see  that  he  is  a  part  of  the  great 
public  which  passes  the  labor  laws  and  determines  the 
efficiency  of  their  enforcement  by  means  of  factory  in- 
spection and  otherwise.  The  enforcement  of  state  legis- 
lation for  working-hours,  proper  vfater  and  milk  supply, 
education  of  the  children,  sanitary  tenement  conditions, 
efficient  health  administration,  is  dependent  upon  the 
interest,  activity,  and  intelligence  of  the  public,  of 
which  the  working-class  is  a  large  and  influential  part. 

The  first  and  most  important  step  in  securing  hygienic 
rights  for  workingmen  is  to  make  sure  that  they 
know  the  rights  which  the  laws  already  give  them.  For 
example,  the  passage  of  the  Workmen's  Compensation 
Act  in  1913  marked  a  revolution  in  the  treatment  of 
industrial-accident  cases  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 

Where  previously  the  injured  workman  had  been  the 
prey  of  unscrupulous,  ambulance-chasing  attorneys,  of 
unprincipled  employers,  and  of  heartless  claim  agents 
and  casualty  companies,  to-day  his  legal  status  is  defi- 
nitely fixed  and  his  compensation  or  his  death  benefit 
automatically  provided  for,  and  the  field  of  activity  of 
the  lawyers,  both  reliable  and  dishonest,  is  reduced  to 
the  minimum.  Mr.  Samuel  Harper,  attorney  for  the 
Workingman's  Compensation  Committee  of  Illinois, 
desires  to  give  wide  publicity  to  the  fact  that  now,  in 
that  State,  no  attorney  need  be  retained  by  the  injured 
workman,  and  also  to  the  right  which  the  workman 
has  of  appealing  to  the  Industrial  Board  in  case  of  dis- 
pute between  the  employer  and  the  employee. 

What  the  employee  can  do  for  himself,  as  a  citizen 
having  equal  health  rights  with  employers,  he  has  never 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND  HYGIENE  103 

been  taught  to  see.  Perhaps  the  highest  service  which 
can  be  rendered  to  society  by  industrial  hygiene  is  to 
educate  the  industrial  classes  to  recognize  unhygienic 
conditions,  to  cooperate  with  other  citizens  in  elimi- 
nating them,  and  to  secure  the  enforcement  of  health 
regulations.  Where  can  this  be  done  more  effectively 
than  in  the  schools? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HISTORY 

Many  years  ago  Horace  Mann  said  that,  before  its 
presentation  to  children,  history  should  be  rewritten. 
Quite  recently,  in  his  book  entitled  The  New  History, 
James  Harvey  Robinson,  Professor  of  History,  Co- 
lumbia University,  pointed  out  that  the  writers  of  school 
textbooks  were  governed  by  tradition  in  the  selection 
of  material  rather  than  by  the  "needs,  capacity,  in- 
terests, and  future  career  of  the  boys  and  girls"  to 
whom  the  history  is  to  be  taught.  He  shows,  however, 
that  some  changes  have  been  made  in  the  right  direc- 
tion.  He  says: — 

Our  most  recent  manuals  venture  to  leave  out  some  of  the 
traditional  facts  least  appropriate  for  an  elementary  review 
of  the  past  and  endeavor  to  bring  their  narrative  into  relation, 
here  and  there  [the  italics  are  ours],  with  modern  needs  and 
demands.  But  I  think  that  this  process  of  eliminating  the 
old  and  substituting  the  new  might  be  carried  much  farther; 
that  our  best  manuals  are  still  crowded  with  facts  that  are 
not  worth  while  bringing  to  the  attention  of  our  boys  and 
girls  and  still  omit  in  large  measure  those  things  that  are  best 
worth  telling. 

This  point  is  well  illustrated  by  the  following  table, 
which  was  compiled  by  Professor  J.  F.  Bobbitt,  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  by  whose  kind  permission  it  is 
used  herewith.  It  shows  the  average  number  of  pages 
devoted  to  each  of  several  subjects  treated  in  eighteen 
of  the  school  histories  most  commonly  used. 


HISTORY 


105 


Elementary  School  Histories 


Military  Campaigns 87.0 

National  Government 14.0 

Race  Problema 12.8 

Territorial  Expansion 11.5 

Elections 9.6 

International  Relations 9.0 

Sociological  Aspects  of  War 8.4 

Indians 6.8 

Political  Parties 5.9 

Sectionalism 5.9 

Inventions 5.3 

Insurance 4.0 

Religion 4.0 

Tariff  and  Free  Trade 3.7 

Treaties 3.6 

Church  and  State 3.6 

Immigration 3.5 

Transportation 8.4 

Growth  of  Population 2.9 

Legislation 2.9 

Literature 2.8 

Local  Government 2.7 

Railroads 2.7 

Canals 2.5 

National  Debt 2.5 

Manufacturing 2.5 

Foreign  Commerce 2.3 

Mining 2.3 

State  Government 2.2 

Education 2.0 

Money  Systems . .  2.0 

Banks  and  Banking - 2.0 

Panic  and  Business  Depressions ....  2.0 

Growth  of  Industry 2.0 

Taxation 1.9 

Cataclysms ...: 1.9 

Politics  and  Politicians 1.8 

Communication 1.8 

Capital  and  Labor,  Relations  of 1.8 

Army 1.6 

Navy 1.6 

World  Expositions 1.5 

Agriculture 1.4 

Mexican  Situation 1.4 

Suffrage 1.4 

Treatment  of  Criminals 1.4 

Family 1.4 

Recreations  and  Amusements 1.2 

Wealth 1.2 

Roads  and  Road  Transportation  ...   1.2 

Telegraph 1.1 

Strikes  and  Lockouts l.r 

Government    Control    of    Corpora- 
tions    1.1 

Liquor  Problems 1.0 

Peace  Movements 1.0 

Crime 1.0 

Factory  Labor 1.0 


Our  Insular  Possessions 

Cost  of  Government 

Commerce 

Colleges 

Standard  of  Living 

Courts  of  Law 

Conservation  of  Natural  Resources . 

International  Arbitration 

Municipal  Government 

Mongolian  Race  Problems 


National  Defense 

Military  Training  and  Service 

Health,  Sanitation,  etc 

Memorials 

Struggle  with  Nature 

Charities 

Libraries 

Trusts 

Housing  Conditions 

Labor  Unions 

Centralization  of  Government 

Savings  Banks . 

Newspapers  and  Magazines 

Electricity 

Prisons 

Social  Settlements 

Postal  Service 

Care  of  Dependents  and  Delinquents 

Militarism 

Neutrality 

Poverty 

Bliteracy 

Irrigation 

Fisheries 

Telephone . . . ; 

Soldiers'  Pensions 

Fire  Protection 

Marriage 

Women  in  Industry 

Initiative,  Referendum,  and  Recall. 

Pure-Food  Control 

Wages 

Street-Lighting 

Water-Supply  of  Cities 

Cityward  and  Countryward  Move- 
ments   ; 

Contagious  Disease^ 

Cooperative  Buying  and  Selling 

Hospitals 

Minimum  Wage 

Stock  Exchange 

Freedom  of  Speech 

Copyrights  and  Patents 

Child  Labor 

Unemployment 

Cost  of  laving 

Tuberculosis 

Insurance 


1.0 
1.0 
1.0 
1.0 
.9 
.9 
.8 
.8 


Professor  Robinson  intimates  that  it  is  possible  to 
make  such  a  selection  of  material  "from  the  boundless 


106  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

wealth  of  the  past"  as  will  be  peculiarly  enlightening 
to  a  particular  group  of  children,  and  he  also  suggests  of 
what  this  material  should  consist  if  intended  for  chil- 
dren in  the  industrial  schools. 

In  determining  what  topics  should  be  included  in  a 
history  course  for  prevocational  children,  the  teachers 
of  the  experimental  classes,  noted  in  the  preface,  have 
been  guided,  first,  by  "the  needs,  capacity,  interests, 
and  future  career  of  the  boys";*^econd,  by  the  fact 
that  an  extremely  limited  amount  of  time  was  available; 
and  third^by  their  opinions,  clarified  by  careful  and 
sympathetic  experimentation,  as  to  the  most  fruitful 
lessons  which  the  past  holds  for  the  coming  industrial 
workers  of  the  country.  While  the  topics  may  not  agree 
closely  with  those  suggested  by  Professor  Robinson,  it 
is  believed  that  the  plan,  as  a  whole,  well  illustrates  the 
principle  of  selection  which  he  sets  forth  so  clearly. 

It  has  been  noted  previously  that  certain  subjects, 
heretofore  reserved  for  high  school  or  even  for  college, 
have  been  given  to  prevocational  classes.  Of  course 
they  have  been  simplified  and  made  concrete  and  have 
been  brought  within  the  comprehension  of  those  chil- 
dren. One  such  subject  is  history  and  another  is  econom- 
ics. The  two  in  their  interrelation  form  an  eminently 
practical  and  a  truly  cultural  study  for  prevocational 
pupils.  In  other  words,  these  children  should  know 
something  of  history,  but  the  particular  phases  of 
history  which  will  be  of  genuine  value  to  them  are  not 
the  political  or  the  military  phases,  nor  even  the  indus- 
trial phases,  narrowly  considered,  but  those  which  tell  of 
the  relation  of  the  worker  to  his  work  and  to  the  rest 
of  society.  It  is  that  history  which  tells  of  the  methods 
by  which  the  worker  has  maintained  himself  in  life  and 


HISTORY  107 

has  raised  his  class  out  of  slavery  to  full  citizenship.  In 
this  connection  the  teacher  should  not  fail  to  consult 
the  enlightening  article  by  Professor  Andrew  Cunning- 
ham McLaughlin,  Head  of  the  Department  of  History 
of  the  University  of  Chicago,  noted  under  general  ref- 
erences on  page  132.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  has  stated  officially  that 
industrial  schools  should  teach  the  children,  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age,  a  sound  system  of 
" economics,' '  including  the  theory  of  collective  bar- 
gaining. The  history,  then,  which  is  appropriate  for 
these  children,  is  economic  history  and  might  well  be 
entitled  "A  History  of  Work  and  Workers." 

The  Manhattan  Trade  School  considers  it  necessary 
to  include  such  instruction  in  its  course  of  study,  the 
subject  being  entitled  simply  "Industrial  Conditions." 
The  principal  of  the  school,  in  commenting  on  the 
course,  says :  — 

This  course  is  designed  to  awaken  in  pupils  an  intelligent 
interest  in  industrial  questions,  and  to  acquaint  them  with 
the  factory  laws  in  such  a  way  that  they  shall  feel  their  re- 
sponsibility in  helping  to  enforce  them. 

In  order  to  give  largeness  of  view,  several  talks  are  given 
on  industrial  history,  starting  with  primitive  forms  of  industry 
and  leading  up  to  the  introduction  of  machinery  which  brought 
about  the  industrial  revolution. 

A  discussion  of  the  industrial  revolution  and  its  effects 
shows  how  the  need  for  factory  laws  arose,  and  these  laws  are 
then  taken  up  for  study.  Copies  of  the  abstract  posted  in  the 
factories  are  procured  from  the  department  of  factory  in- 
spection, and  those  portions  which  relate  to  conditions  the 
pupils  will  meet  in  trade  are  read  and  discussed,  and  sugges- 
tions are  made  as  to  ways  in  which  workers  can  help  in  en- 
forcing the  laws. 

Following  this  work  comes  a  reading  and  study  of  some 
simple  article  explaining  the  principles  of  trade  unions,  with 


108  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

the  twofold  purpose  of  familiarizing  the  pupils  with  those 
principles  and  interesting  them  in  literature  along  the  lines  of 
industrial  problems. 

As  an  additional  step  a  brief  sketch  is  given  showing  the 
nature  of  the  work  done  by  such  organizations  as  the  Con- 
sumers' League  and  the  National  Association  for  Labor  Leg- 
islation in  their  efforts  to  improve  industrial  conditions. 

The  outline  given  below  forms  the  basis  for  the 
work:  — 

1.  Primitive  industries. 

2.  The  industrial  revolution. 

3.  Factory  laws. 

4.  Trade  unions. 

5.  The  Consumers'  League,  etc. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  it  was  shown  that  a  study  of 
industrial  hygiene  led  inevitably  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  lives  of  workmen  are  held  more  sacred  year  by  year, 
and  that  greater  efforts  are  constantly  being  made  to 
conserve  their  interests.  This  fact,  once  established,  may 
be  taken  as  a  starting-point  for  the  study  of  "  Economic 
History."  In  other  words,  the  study  of  history  in  the 
prevocational  class  should  be  addressed  to  the  problem 
of  making  clear  to  the  children  the  social  value  of  the 
workman  as  a  human  being.  It  must  be  shown  that  all 
other  factors  may  be  improved  without  advancing  the 
interests  of  the  workers  at  all.  Such  factors,  for  example, 
as  cheaper  raw  materials  of  industry;  better  means  of 
distribution;  the  fuller  development  of  automatic  ma- 
chinery; the  elimination  of  waste  material  or  waste 
time;  —  all  these  and  other  improvements  might  be 
brought  about  without  essentially  changing  the  lot  of 
the  masses  of  workmen.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  much 
of  the  instruction  given  in  the  schools  under  the  name 


HISTORY  109 

"Industrial  History"  entirely  ignores  the  workman  him- 
self and  merely  relates  to  the  wonderful  development 
of  modern  industrial  methods  and  the  enormous  in- 
crease in  material  commodities  resulting  therefrom.  It 
should  also  be  shown  that  unless  the  workers  succeed  in 
getting  for  themselves  their  share  of  the  increasing 
benefits,  at  every  stage  of  industrial  progress,  these 
benefits  will  certainly  go,  in  large  measure,  to  the  capi- 
talistic class. 

By  making  "the  progress  of  the  worker"  the  domi- 
nant factor  in  the  course  a  vital  element  common  to  all 
times  will  be  established,  which  element  will  serve  to 
hold  together  and  to  relate  all  phases  of  history  provided 
the  study  should  be  continued  beyond  the  prevocational 
class.  Professor  Frank  T.  Carlton,  in  his  History  and 
Problems  of  Organized  Labor,  says:  — 

For  indefinite  centuries  men  have  been  seeking  for  the  solu- 
tion of  various  problems  relating  to  the  toilers.  Students  of 
ancient  history  have  disclosed  the  struggles  of  the  plebeian  or 
slave  class  against  the  patrician  or  ruling  class  centuries  be- 
fore the  Christian  era.  The  labor  problem  is  a  problem  of  all 
nations,  of  all  peoples  and  of  all  centuries.  The  factors  change, 
but  the  problem  remains.  History  is  really  a  story  of  the 
struggle  of  the  mass  upward;  true  history  is  a  chronicle  of 
the  relations  of  man  to  man  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
and  the  subdual  of  natural  forces. 

The  purpose  of  the  following  course,  therefore,  is  to 
give  the  children  an  elementary  appreciation  of  the 
various  steps  in  the  upward  progress  of  the  worker,  and 
especially  an  understanding  of  the  organizations  of 
labor  and  of  capital  as  they  exist  to-day,  to  the  end  that 
such  study  may  ultimately  produce  workmen  who  will 
have  a  clear  knowledge  of  their  own  conditions,  their 
own  rights,  and  their  own  duties.  A  brief  outline 
follows:  — 


110  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


INTRODUCTION 

The  course  starts  with  an  exposition  of  the  more 
obvious  features  of  present-day  industrial  conditions  in 
order  to  develop  a  strong  personal  and  practical  interest 
in  the  study  of  the  economic  phases  of  history.  These 
present-day  features  are  as  follows :  The  factory  system 
of  production  and  the  saving  effected  by  it;  the  modern 
methods  of  scientific  management;  the  plan  of  organi- 
zation of  different  business  concerns,  as,  for  example, 
the  firm  and  the  corporation;  the  relative  advantages 
of  working  for  each;  the  reasons  for  the  corporation; 
the  reasons  for  trade  unions  and  for  labor  unions;  and 
the  relation  of  capital  and  labor. 

II 

THE  STRUGGLE  UP  FROM   SLAVERY 

The  next  step  is  to  outline  the  history  of  the  masses 
as  the  workers  have  progressed  through  the  following 
stages: — 

(a)  Slavery  resulting  from  conquest  of  the  weaker  tribe  by 

the  stronger. 
(6)  Slavery  as  a  condition  of  birth.  The  slave  class. 

(c)  Essential  features  of  feudalism  and  the  condition  of  the 
land  slaves. 

(d)  The  evolution  of  the  craftsman  and  his  emancipation 
through  skill. 

(e)  The  craft  guilds;  apprentices,  journeymen,  masters;  the 
employers  and  employed  frequently  in  the  same  guild. 

(/)  The  rapid  development  of  the  factory  method  of  pro- 
duction with  its  specialization,  large-scale  production, 
automatic  machinery,  child  and  woman  labor.  These 
methods  of  production  had  the  effect  of  forcing  down 
wages  and  of  glutting  the  labor  market,  thereby  reduc- 
ing large  numbers  of  workmen  to  a  new  kind  of  slavery. 


HISTORY  111 

III 
ORGANIZED   LABOR 

The  development  of  organized  labor  in  America, 
with  its  principles,  problems,  and  history,  is  then  taken 
up  as  a  means  of  studying  the  methods  by  which  the 
worker  is  raising  himself  again,  this  time  from  an  eco- 
nomic slavery  to  an  economic  freedom.  This  concludes 
with  a  brief  mention  of  labor  in  politics  with  a  discus- 
sion of  the  extent  to  which  such  movements  have  bene- 
fited the  worker. 

IV 

CIVICS   OR  THE  WORKER  AS  A  CITIZEN 

The  worker  as  a  member  of  a  labor  organization  sinks 
his  identity.  As  a  citizen  he  should  stand  as  an  indi- 
vidual. This  conception  introduces  a  brief  study  of 
civics  in  its  more  personal  relations. 

Some  objection  may  be  made  to  the  above  outline  on 
the  ground  that  it  seems  to  omit  many  fundamentals 
of  United  States  history  which  all  children  should  be 
taught.  In  working  out  the  details  of  the  course  it  will 
be  found  that,  if  there  is  enough  time,  ample  oppor- 
tunity is  afforded  for  all  necessary  features  of  such 
history  throughout  the  last  half  of  the  course.  For 
example,  early  American  history  may  be  introduced  as 
a  part  of  Section  II,  beginning  at  (e).  This  would  in- 
clude a  study  of  the  industries  of  the  colonial  period, 
the  condition  of  apprentices  in  New  England,  and  the 
economic  reasons  for  negro  slavery  in  the  South.  Ample 
material  for  this  will  be  found  in  chapters  II  and  III 
of  Carlton's  History  and  Problems  of  Organized  Labor. 
Where  there  is  a  reasonable  hope  that  the  children  are 


112  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

to  remain  in  school  for  a  sufficient  time,  and  where  a 
genuine  interest  has  been  secured,  such  excursions  into 
the  more  general  phases  of  United  States  history  should 
undoubtedly  be  made,  but  the  paramount  importance 
of  the  development  of  industrial  and  social  intelligence 
should  always  be  kept  clearly  in  mind.  There  are  sev- 
eral history  textbooks  to-day  which  give  some  attention 
to  the  factors  which  this  course  makes  central  and  para- 
mount, and  these  books  can  be  used  with  great  advan- 
tage. One  such,  for  example,  is  History  of  the  United 
States,  by  Bourne  and  Benton,  which  under  such  titles 
as  "Immigration,"  "Indentured  Servants,"  "Colonial 
Industries,"  etc.,  contains  much  interesting  and  perti- 
nent material.* 

The  remaining  pages  of  this  chapter  deal  with  the 
elaboration  of  the  four  sections  of  the  subject  as  out- 
lined above.  Section  I  is  introductory  and  also  illus- 
trates the  method  of  presentation.  Section  II  indicates 
the  kind  of  facts  which  have  proved  interesting  to  pre- 
vocational  classes.  Sections  III  and  IV  discuss  in  more 
detail  the  specific  purpose  of  the  instruction  given,  to- 
gether with  brief  topical  outlines  of  the  subjects  treated, 
and  reference  to  sources  of  material. 

I 

INTRODUCTION 

What  is  history? 

Why  should  we  study  history? 

Besides  the  pleasure  it  gives  us  to  know  the  story  of 
how  the  civilized  world  has  grown,  and  the  help  it  gives 
us  in  understanding  what  is  happening  to-day,  it  also 
helps  us  to  decide  what  we  ought  to  do  ourselves. 

1  See  specific  references  at  close  of  chapter. 


HISTORY  118 

Some  day  we  shall  vote.  A  knowledge  of  history  ought 
to  help  us  to  vote  right.  One  may  be  elected  to  a  public 
office.  In  that  case  history  should  teach  one  how  to  be  a 
more  efficient  officer. 

But  all  of  us  have  to  work,  and  a  knowledge  of  history 
really  ought  to  make  it  possible  for  us  to  work  more  suc- 
cessfully, and  to  choose  better  what  kind  of  work  to  do. 
Why? 

Who  did  most  of  the  work  in  the  South  before  the  Civil  War? 

Who  did  most  of  the  work  in  ancient  Greece? 

Did  these  men  decide  what  kind  of  work  they  would  do  or 
for  whom  they  would  work?  Why? 
Because  they  were  slaves. 

What  is  a  slave? 

Who  does  most  of  the  work  in  Chicago  to-day? 
We  all  work. 

Do  most  of  us  decide  what  we  shall  do  and  for  whom  we 
shall  work? 

In  theory,  yes.  The  wiser,  stronger,  better-trained 
men  and  women  do  choose  to  a  large  extent. 

Why? 

Because  we  are  not  slaves. 

Can  those  who  work  in  the  large  factories  decide  from  day 
to  day  what  they  will  do?  Why  not? 

When  and  how  did  it  happen  that  workingmen  became 
freemen  instead  of  slaves?  Would  you  like  to  know? 
History  of  the  right  kind  will  tell  you.  Shall  we  study  it 
some  day? 

When  you  go  to  work  would  you  like  to  decide  what  you  will 
do  and  for  whom  you  will  work? 

If  you  had  the  opportunity  to  choose  would  you  know  how? 

Would  you  rather  work  for  an  individual,  a  firm,  or  a  cor- 
poration? 

What  is  a  firm  and  what  does  partnership  mean? 

What  is  a  corporation? 

Can  you  bring  to  class  next  week  the  names  of  some  (A) 
individuals  who  are  in  business  and  who  employ  others; 
(B)  firms;  (C)  corporations? 

"A"  is  generally  written  thus  — J.  Jones,  Hair-Cut- 
ting. "B  "  thus,  —  Jones  &  Smith,  or  Jones,  Smith  &  Co. 


114  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

"C"  thus,  —  The  Jones,  Smith  Company;  The  Chicago 
Telephone  Company. 

Will  you  ask  your  fathers,  brothers,  and  sisters  who  are 
at  work  whether  they  work  for  individuals,  firms  or  cor- 
porations? 

How  long  have  there  been  such  things  as  industrial  cor- 
porations? 

Not  many  years,  hardly  more  than  two  or  three  gen- 
erations. The  very  large  corporations  are  sometimes 
called  Trusts. 

Why  did  men  think  of  forming  corporations? 

The  chief  reason  was  that  the  production  was  getting 
to  be  on  a  larger  and  larger  scale  and  few  individuals 
could  get  money  enough  of  their  own  to  build  and  equip 
the  plants,  so  they  organized  corporations,  under  charters 
from  the  State,  and  sold  "shares"  of  stock.  With  the 
money  thus  secured  they  built  factories  and  ran  the  busi- 
ness. The  profits  are  divided  among  the  "stockholders" 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  shares  they  own.  Thus 
large  scale  production  made  the  corporation  necessary,  j 

What  is  the  advantage  to  the  community  of  large  scale, 
factory  production? 
It  lowers  the  cost. 

Would  it  be  interesting  to  know  how,  little  by  little,  business 
and  industry  grew  to  its  present  state? 

Will  that  help  us  to  see  how  it  will  still  further  develop? 

Is  factory  work  and  business  under  corporation  form  on  the 
increase? 

More  than  one  third  of  the  wage-workers  in  the  manu- 
facturing industries  of  Illinois  work  for  corporations 
which  produce  more  than  one  million  dollars  worth  of 
goods  every  year. 

Before  we  go  back  to  study  the  early  days  of  industry, 
we  ought  to  talk  a  little  about  the  present  times,  and  such 
facts  as  the  foregoing  help  us  to  understand.  Perhaps  you 
can  bring  to  class  some  interesting  things  about  working 
conditions  to-day. 

Are  there  more  men  directing  the  corporations  or  more  men 
working  for  corporations? 

Which  ones  get  the  most  money?  Which  have  the  most 
power? 


HISTORY  115 

What  do  you  know  about  "capital"  and  "labor"?  This  is 
a  large  question,  but  we  must  know  some  things  about 
these  terms  and  what  they  stand  for.  Capitalists  control 
their  own  and  other  people's  money. 
Why  do  workmen  "organize,"  that  is,  "form  unions"? 
It  becomes  necessary  to  do  so  because  the  corporation 
is  a  combination  of  capital,  and  labor  must  "combine" 
to  hold  its  own. 
Would  you  like  to  study  a  little  about  "labor  unions"  later? 
Bring  to  class  any  information  about  them  which  you 
can  obtain  from  relatives  or  friends,  especially  those  in 
unions. 

II 

THE  STRUGGLE  UP  FROM  SLAVERY* 

In  telling  about  the  life  and  progress  of  an  individual 
we  might  describe  what  he  did  day  by  day  or  we  might 
show  what  he  had  achieved  at  different  stages  in  his 
development.  For  example,  we  could  describe  him 
when,  as  a  boy  of  six  years,  he  first  went  to  school.  We 
might  next  see  him  when,  at  fourteen,  he  graduated 
from  the  elementary  school  and  debated  the  question 
as  to  whether  he  would  go  to  high  school  or  go  to  work. 
Let  us  say  that  he  took  a  two-year  vocational  course 
and  that  we  find  him  at  sixteen  taking  his  first  job. 
At  twenty-one  we  see  him,  now  a  man,  casting  his  first 
vote.  At  thirty  he  has  perhaps  just  accomplished  some 
worthy  thing  for  which  he  has  been  working  for  years. 
Many  years  later  we  may  see  him,  toward  the  close  of 
life,  looking  back  over  it  all  and  advising  the  younger 
men  as  to  what  things  in  life  he  had  found  satisfying. 

In  telling  about  the  progress  of  the  worker  through 

the  centuries  we  shall  adopt  this  method  and  shall  show 

his  condition  at  six  different  periods  of  his  development, 

1  The  following  is  not  intended  to  be  read  by  the  class  or  to  the 
class,  but  is  merely  suggestive  to  the  teacher. 


116  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

remembering  that  many  years  or  even  centuries  have 
passed  between  one  stage  and  the  next. 

But  first  we  may  well  ask  the  question,  "Why  are 
there  those  who  have  to  work  hard  all  the  time  and 
others  who  apparently  do  little  or  no  laborious  work?" 
Human  nature  seems  to  be  such  that  few  will  do  dis- 
agreeable work  of  any  kind  if  they  can  make  others  do 
it  for  them.  Furthermore,  while  there  is  always  a  better 
and  an  easier  way  of  doing  any  kind  of  laborious  work, 
the  better  way  has  almost  always  been  "invented"  or 
devised  by  the  one  actually  engaged  in  doing  the  work. 
This  requires  ability  and  intelligence,  and  it  seems  that 
for  many  centuries  men  of  ability  apparently  used  their 
intelligence  to  get  away  from  work  by  forcing  the  less 
able  to  do  it  for  them.  Thus  a  working-class  was  firmly 
established.  Throughout  the  history  of  the  world,  there- 
fore, masses  of  men  and  women  have  been  compelled 
to  do  the  hard,  dull,  disagreeable,  dangerous  work,  — 
compelled  in  different  ways,  but  always  compelled.  Do 
you  know  any  of  the  different  ways  by  which  this  com- 
pulsion has  been  exercised? 

Another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the  weaker  were 
obliged  to  do  the  drudgery  may  be  found  in  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Indian  "braves"  who  did  the  hunting  and 
compelled  their  women  to  do  the  "work."  If  the 
women  had  been  the  stronger  it  might  have  been  other- 
wise. 

The  six  stages  in  the  progress  of  the  worker  will  be 
clearly  understood  by  us  if  we  talk  over  together  the  fol- 
lowing facts  and  add  to  them  from  our  own  general 
knowledge  and  from  what  we  can  read  in  a  few  books.1 

1  Thurston's  Economics  and  Industrial  History  will  supply  the 
necessary  minimum  for  parts  3  to  6. 


HISTORY  117 

1 
The  Slave  by  Conquest 
Perhaps  the  first  slavery,  as  we  think  of  slavery  to- 
day, was  when  one  small  tribe  fought  with  and  con- 
quered another  and  weaker  tribe,  and  then  compelled 
the  conquered  tribe  to  do  their  menial  work  for  them, 
killing  those  who  would  not.  The  ancient  Greeks  and 
Romans  had  numerous  slaves  of  this  kind,  men  who 
were  born  free  but  were  "  thrown  into  slavery." 


The  Slave  Class 

Little  by  little,  however,  there  was  developed  a 
slave  class.  Children  were  "born  into  slavery"  and 
educated  to  service.  The  most  familiar  example  to  us 
in  the  United  States,  of  course,  is  the  condition  of  negro 
slavery  before  the  Civil  War.  Perhaps  more  interesting 
illustrations  can  be  drawn  from  the  history  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  where  many  of  the  slaves  were  of  very 
superior  peoples,  the  equal  intellectually  of  their 
masters. 

3 
Feudalism 

Feudalism  grew  up  under  government  too  weak  to 
preserve  that  order  which  the  state  should  insure  to  all 
its  citizens.  As  the  government  could  not  give  this 
protection,  the  strongest  men,  called  in  England  earls, 
barons,  and  lords,  with  their  soldiers  and  followers, 
were  called  upon  by  weak  freemen  and  small  land- 
owners to  accept  their  service  and,  in  return,  to  give 
them  protection.  That  is,  the  one  asking  for  protection 
became,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  kind  of  slave.  There  were 


118  PREVOCATIONAU  EDUCATION 

different  classes  among  the  people  who  acknowledged 
"fealty"  to  the  lords,  but  the  conditions  of  those  who 
tilled  the  soil  were  most  nearly  those  of  slavery  as  we 
know  it.  As  illustrating  the  conditions  of  the  serfs  of 
the  feudal  system  we  may  well  take  as  example  the 
villeins  on  the  manors  of  England.1 

Of  course  this  kind  of  "serfdom"  or  slavery  varied 
in  the  different  parts  of  Europe  and  in  different  cen- 
turies.2 


Freedom  through  Craftsmanship 

During  the  so-called  "Home  Period"  individuals, 
while  doing  all  the  work  required  of  the  serf  or  villein, 
still  had  a  little  time  to  work  for  themselves.  Again, 
these  individuals  sometimes  developed  special  ability  in 
some  one  craft.  Thurston  notes  this  in  an  interesting 
way  by  calling  attention  to  several  English  names  which 
clearly  indicate  this  fact.  While  all  had  to  be  farmers, 
some  became  known  as  Carpenter,  Baker,  Butcher, 
Smith,  etc.,  because  they  had  become  especially  pro- 
ficient in  the  craft  in  question.  Suggest  other  names: 
Weaver,  Webber,  Mason,  Fisher,  Wheeler,  Taylor, 
Tyler,  etc. 

In  process  of  time  the  craftsman  came  to  devote  all 
his  time  to  his  trade.  It  also  developed  that  these  crafts- 
men gathered  in  towns  where  work  could  be  found, 
since  now  the  work  was  not  done  directly  for  the  con- 
sumer. As  the  man  became  a  craftsman  instead  of  a 
farmer  he  was  less  restricted  in  his  movements  from 

1  See  Thurston,  pp.  52  to  55. 

*  Note  the  date  as  given  by  Thurston  for  this  English  example. 
William  Hard  says  that  "  in  1807  two  thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Prussia  were  serfs,  bound  to  the  soil." 


HISTORY  119 

place  to  place,  though  he  was  still  subject  to  many 
regulations  which  do  not  exist  for  workmen  to-day.1 
He  was  much  less  a  slave  to  a  master,  though  he  might 
be  a  slave  of  "circumstances." 

The  craft  guilds  imposed  regulations,  but  the  work- 
man was  a  member  of  the  guild  and  so  had  something 
to  do  with  making  these  regulations.  On  the  whole  we 
may  say  that  through  the  skilled  craft  the  workman 
finally  became  a  freeman. 


The  Worker  and  the  Guild 

How  for  a  time  the  skilled  worker  maintained  him- 
self as  a  freeman,  during  the  early  days  of  the  wage 
system,  must  be  studied  in  the  guilds.  There  is  much 
that  may  be  said  about  them,  but,  for  our  particular 
study,  —  i.  e.,  the  rise  from  slavery  to  freedom,  —  it  is 
most  interesting  and  pertinent  to  note  the  discussion 
given  in  Thurston  on  page  77.  This  shows  that  the 
skilled  workman  was,  to  a  considerable  extent,  "his 
own  master."  It  also  shows  that  this  condition  cannot 
last  long,  since  it  has  in  it  the  seeds  of  its  own  destruc- 
tion. It  also  shows  us  why,  and  indicates  that  strength 
for  labor  can  be  permanent  only  by  making  it  equal  with 
capital.  Although  his  position  is  not  to  last  long  our 
skilled  workman  is  free.  Has  he,  with  the  capitalist, 
forgotten  the  unskilled  and  the  learners?  Is  this  his 
weakness? 

6 

Conditions  leading  to  a  New  Slavery 
The  conditions  which  eventually  broke  down  the 
advantage  thus  far  gained  by  the  skilled  worker  were 
1  Thurston,  p.  176. 


120  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

specialization,  large-scale  production,  and  automatic 
machinery  which  utilized  unskilled  labor,  including  the 
labor  of  children  and  women. 

These  resulted  in  an  over-supplying  of  labor,  thus 
forcing  down  wages,  making  work  irregular  or  uncertain, 
narrowing  the  "margin  of  safety,"  to  say  nothing  of 
comfort,  making  the  worker  dependent  on  the  capitalist 
for  "the  opportunity  and  the  right  to  work,"  and  ac- 
tually producing,  for  many  thousand  people  even  in 
this  rich  country,  what  the  socialists  call  "wage- 
slavery." 

This  leads  directly  to  the  history  and  problems  of 
organized  labor,  the  purpose  of  which  is  again  to  enable 
the  worker  to  struggle  up,  with  a  larger  percentage  of 
all  workers,  including  this  time,  let  us  hope,  not  merely 
the  highly  skilled,  but  all  who  can  be  helped  by  standing 
together  for  the  good  of  all. 

in 

ORGANIZED   LABOR 

The  purpose  of  discussing  organized  labor  with  these 
boys  is  to  emphasize  the  general  efficacy  of  organization 
in  social  and  industrial  activities  and  to  develop  a  more 
discriminating  attitude  toward  that  particular  kind 
of  organization  adopted  by  wage  earners,  that  is,  the 
labor  unions.  It  is  believed  that  children  of  the  pre- 
vocational  type  and  age  should  be  taught  some  simple 
facts  and  principles  which  will  enable  them  to  interpret 
more  intelligently  the  loosely  expressed  public  opinion 
relating  to  the  labor  question  and  which  will  give  them 
a  basis  for  judgment  about  a  matter  not  far  removed 
from  their  present  interest. 

It  should  be  recalled  that  the  general  public  seldom 


HISTORY  121 

takes  any  vital  interest  in  labor  organizations  except  in 
times  of  labor  disputes.  At  such  times  the  public  fre- 
quently suffers  some  discomfort  and  its  judgment  is 
warped  accordingly.  It  is  therefore  quite  common  to 
hear  indiscriminate  criticism  of  labor  unions  in  general 
because  of  the  unlovely  aspect  of  some  phases  of  organ- 
ization which  develop  during  prolonged  and  bitter 
strikes.  This  tendency  to  unfavorable  criticism  of  the 
unions  is  still  further  strengthened  because  the  capitalist 
employer  more  easily  gets  his  facts  and  opinions  before 
the  public.  All  this  is  unfortunate,  as  it  tends  to  create 
a  support  of  unionism  which  is  equally  prejudiced  and 
unthinking.  For  these  reasons  it  seems  desirable  to 
begin  the  discussion  of  labor  organization  with  a  con- 
sideration of  the  case  against  the  unions. 

This  should  be  followed  by  a  statement  favorable  to 
unionism,  showing  the  nature  and  the  purposes  of  or- 
ganization, and  the  whole  should  conclude  with  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  growth  of  unionism  in  the  United  States, 
showing  especially  the  broadening  conception  from 
isolated  "trade"  unions  to  federated  "labor"  unions. 
It  will  be  found  worth  while  to  make  a  study  of  certain 
locals  known  to  members  of  the  class.  A  discussion  of 
the  building-trades  unions  is  interesting  in  almost  any 
locality .  Some  facts  about  apprenticeship,  its  history  and 
present  requirements,  are  naturally  evolved  from  this 
work  and  make  a  strong  vocational  appeal  to  the  boys. 

A  brief  topical  outline  follows:  — 

The  Case  against  the  Unions 

1.  Unfair  discrimination  in  limiting  membership  in  the 
union  and  the  number  of  apprentices. 

2.  Submission  to  unwise  and  self-interested  leaders  within 
the  union. 


122  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

3.  Limitation,  to  an  unjustifiable  degree,  of  the  amount  to 
be  accomplished  in  a  day's  work. 

4.  Occasional  unjust  demands  when  in  complete  control  of 
the  situation. 

5.  Unnecessary  strikes  involving  innocent  parties. 

6.  Picketing  and  the  violence  sometimes  resulting  therefrom. 

7.  Sympathetic  strikes  which  involve  the  breaking  of  con- 
tracts. 

8.  Destruction  of  property  in  carrying  on  strikes. 

9.  Ban  on  prison  labor. 

The  above  may  be  discussed  from  three  points  of 
view,  —  injustice  toward  the  public;  injustice  toward 
the  employer;  injustice  toward  fellow- workmen  out- 
side the  union,  and  sometimes  toward  union  members 
who  disagree. 

Needs  and  Purposes  of  Labor  Unions 

1.  Labor  organization  is  necessary  to  counterbalance  capi- 
tal organization  as  typified  in  corporations  and  employ- 
ers' associations. 

2.  A  union  can  give  an  effective  expression  of  the  opinions 
and  needs  of  its  members,  and  to  some  extent  of  the 


3.  The  individual  wage-earner  cannot  treat  successfully 
with  his  organized  employer,  capital  frequently  repre- 
senting many  employers,  though  managed  by  a  few 
directors. 

4.  It  is  necessary  to  bargain  collectively  about  wages,  hours, 
and  employment  conditions  of  labor,  and  is  as  justifiable 
as  for  a  wage-earner  to  bargain  individually  about  the 
labor  he  sells. 

5.  A  continuous  and  strong  organization  of  workers  is  nec- 
essary to  procure  and  maintain  suitable  employment 
conditions  for  its  members. 

6.  The  unions  protect  the  employer  against  some  bad  prac- 
tices growing  out  of  competition  in  the  industrial  world. 

7.  Many  unions  promote  social  activities,  educational  im- 
provement, and  the  establishment  of  sick  benefits. 


HISTORY  123 

Presentation  of  the  above  material  should  show 
clearly  that  unions  cannot  be  strong  from  their  begin- 
ning, but  must  grow,  and  that  society  should  be  patient 
with  them  through  the  early  stages  of  their  develop- 
ment. 

Historical  Sketch 

1.  Name,  date,  and  place  of  a  few  of  the  earliest  trade 

unions. 
#.  Some  statement  regarding  the  size  of  their  membership. 

3.  Date  of  the  first  "federation"  and  some  statement  of 
the  present  extent  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

4.  Statement   regarding   the   Industrial   Workers   of   the 
World. 

Results 
The  work  should  conclude  with  a  discussion  of  the 
results  achieved  by  organized  labor,  such  as  the  secur- 
ing of  better  working  conditions  and  wages,  shorter 
hours,  improved  child  labor  and  compulsory  education 
laws,  and  a  growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  capital 
to  "recognize"  the  union. 

REFERENCES  FOR  THE  TEACHER 

The  Labor  Question.    Washington  Gladden.    Pilgrim  Press. 
(Suggestive  of  the  idealism  of  organized  labor.) 

History  and  Problems  of  Organized  Labor.  Frank  Tracy  Carl- 
ton. D.  C.  Heath  &  Company.  page 

Guild  system 16 

Shoemakers'  Union  at  Boston,  First  American 

Guild,  1648  (Colonial  Period) 16 

Federal  Society  of  Journeymen  Cordwainers, 

Pennsylvania,  1794  (Revolutionary  Period)         16 
(First  American  trade  union.) 
First  Trades  Union,  Pennsylvania,  1827  (Pe- 
riod of  War  of  1812) 30 

(An  association  of  trade  unions.) 


124  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Knights  of  St.  Crispin  (Shoemakers),  New 

York,  1867  (Civil  War  Period) 65-66 

("First  great  protest  of  American  work- 
men against  abuse  of  machines.") 
Knights  of  Labor,  Pennsylvania,  1869  (Origi- 
nally garment  workers) 71-74 

(An  amalgamation  of  workers.) 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  1881 74-82 

Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  1905 82-84 

Employers'  Associations 85-93 


IV 

CIVICS   FOR   THE   WORKER 

A  complete  study  of  civics  is  not  contemplated.  The 
work  given  is  merely  intended  to  create  an  interest,  on 
the  part  of  the  potential  worker,  in  such  phases  of  the 
subject  as  will  reveal  to  him  something  of  his  personal 
responsibility  to  society. 

Two  points  are  emphasized  especially,  —  first,  what 
the  worker  can  do  to  promote  civic  progress,  and 
second,  what  the  worker  should  know  about  civic 
organization.  Under  the  first  point  are  discussed  the 
worker's  rights,  powers,  and  duties,  and  the  way  in 
which  he  may  exercise  them.  Special  emphasis  is  laid 
on  the  fact  that  some  of  these  duties  may  be  entered 
upon  even  while  the  individual  is  a  schoolboy.  Under 
the  second  point  are  considered  those  things  which 
society  has  done  specifically  for  the  protection  and 
advancement  of  the  worker. 

The  work  is  planned  on  the  assumption  that  the  pupil 
will  build  best  upon  his  personal  experiences  and  that 
an  awakened  interest  in  his  own  relations  to  society 
is  of  far  more  value  to  the  worker  than  a  mere  knowl- 
edge of  the  details  of  civil  government.   The  course, 


HISTORY  125 

therefore,  draws  largely  on  such  material  as  the  chil- 
dren can  investigate  for  themselves,  though  an  attempt 
is  made  to  lead  out  to  civic  activities  in  general. 

The  subject  may  well  be  introduced  by  some  review 
work  in  hygiene  and  sanitation,  showing  sanitation  to 
be  a  civic  duty.  The  following  topics  have  been  used 
successfully  with  prevocational  boys  and  have  fur- 
nished excellent  lessons  for  stimulating  the  practical 
exercise  of  their  civic  duty :  — 

Smoke  laws.  Tuberculosis. 

Ventilation.  Milk  supply. 

The  fly.  A  clean  city. 

Following  is  an  outline  adapted  from  a  bulletin  issued 
by  the  Woman's  City  Club,  of  Chicago,  and  used  in 
presenting  the  first  of  these  topics,  together  with  a  brief 
discussion  of  the  methods  employed  and  the  results  ob- 
tained:— 

The  Smoke  Nuisance 

1.  Reduction  of  smoke  in  the  city  of  Chicago  during  the 
last  eight  years  was  shown  by  diagrams  representing  two 
chimneys  labeled  as  follows:  — 

1907  —  100%  smoke. 

1915  —  37%  smoke. 

Result  —  63%  reduction  since  1907. 

2.  Extracts  from  smoke  law:  — 

For  stationary  plants:  —  Smoke  may  not  be  emitted 
for  more  than  six  minutes  every  hour. 

For  tugs-  and  locomotives  in  motion:  —  Dense  smoke 
may  not  be  emitted  for  more  than  one  minute  every 
hour. 

3.  Proportions  of  dense  smoke  issuing  in  city:  — 

Miscellaneous  power  plants 54% 

Locomotives 27% 


126  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Central  district 8% 

Flat  buildings 5% 

Private  residences 4% 

Boats 2% 

4.  Suggestions  for  reduction  of  smoke:  — 

Electrify  railroads. 

Use  hard  coal  on  boats. 

Heat  by  gas  or  coke. 

Establish  central  power  and  heating  plants. 

Demand  intelligent  methods  of  firing. 

5.  Loss  to  city:  — 

Health. 
Property. 
Cost  of  labor. 
Fuel  combustion. 

The  outlines  were  entered  in  notebooks  and  various 
bulletins  and  diagrams  were  made  by  the  pupils. 
Visits  were  made  to  the  City  Hall  for  information. 
One  pupil  called  at  the  office  of  the  City  Smoke  In- 
spector and  secured  a  large  amount  of  material,  includ- 
ing charts,  curves,  maps,  reports,  and  official  blanks. 
On  the  boy's  invitation,  the  Assistant  Inspector  gladly 
visited  the  school  and  delivered  a  lecture,  well  illus- 
trated by  lantern  slides. 

Several  children  became  sufficiently  interested  to  use 
the  official  blanks,  reporting  in  class  and  to  the  City 
Smoke  Department  cases  of  violation  of  the  smoke 
ordinance.  They  also  collected  news  items,  cartoons, 
and  editorials  relating  to  the  problem,  clipped  from 
magazines  and  the  daily  papers. 

In  addition  to  giving  the  pupils  some  conceptions  of 
what  they  may  do  to  promote  social  welfare,  it  is 
desirable,  as  noted  above,  to  teach  them  a  few  ele- 
mentary facts  regarding  political  organization  and  some 


HISTORY  127 

of  the  laws  which  have  been  enacted  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  worker.  Organized  society  has  evolved, 
through  years  of  experience,  the  several  organizations 
with  which  we  are  all  so  familiar,  but  which  should  be 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  children.  Among  others 
may  be  mentioned  the  following: — 

City.  The  water  system. 

Wards.  The  school  system. 

Taxes.  Franchises. 

City  officials  and  their  duties.  Political  parties. 

Fire  department.  The  ballot. 

All  of  this  work  should  be  taken  up  quite  simply,  and 
generous  use  should  be  made  of  maps  of  the  city  and  its 
wards,  and  bulletins  and  pictures  issued  by  the  various 
departments.  Diagrams  especially  appeal  to  these 
boys.  As  an  example  may  be  cited  the  simple  device  of 
illustrating,  by  a  divided  circle,  the  distribution  of  the 
city's  taxes.  An  interview  with  any  city  official  does 
much  to  make  the  business  of  running  the  city  seem  real 
to  the  pupils. 

The  consideration  of  laws  passed  by  society  to  pro- 
tect the  worker  may  be  introduced  by  reference  to  the 
"safety-first"  movement.  It  will  be  recalled  that  this 
movement  grows  naturally  out  of  the  discussion  of  social 
hygiene,  and  also  from  the  study  of  economic  history. 
The  course  in  civics,  therefore,  may  conclude  with  brief 
references  to  a  number  of  these  movements,  such,  for 
example,  as  the  following:  — 

The  promotion  of  workmen's  compensation  laws. 

Child  labor  laws. 

Study  of  unemployment. 

Establishment  of  a  Vocational  Guidance  Bureau. 

Establishment  of  the  Juvenile  Court. 


128  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  outline  of  the  first  of  these  topics  is  given  here- 
with:— 

The  Workmen's  Compensation  Law 

The  material  has  been  organized  in  two  parts.  The 
first  part  deals  with  the  primary  purpose  of  the  law  and 
shows  something  of  what  has  been  accomplished;  the 
second  part  consists  of  a  study  of  the  basic  principle  of 
the  law. 

I.  The  primary  purpose  is  prompt  compensation  for  injury 
(Extracts  from  what  has  been  accomplished  in  Illinois.) 

1.  Table  of  compensation  rates  in  Illinois. 

Lots  of  member  Percentage  Number 

of  wage  of  week* 

Thumb 50  60 

First  finger 50  35 

Second  finger 50  30 

Third  finger 50  20 

Fourth  finger 50  15 

First  phalange  (one  half  of  finger 

loss) 50 

Two  phalanges  (one  finger  loss) .  50 

Great  toe 50  30 

Any  other  toe 50  10 

One  hand 50  150 

One  arm 50  200 

One  foot 50  125 

One  leg 50  175 

One  eye 50  100 

2.  Rates  of  compensation  a  necessity  in  order  to  guard 
against  dishonesty  and  abuses  of  compensation  laws. 

3.  List  of  occupations  in  which  compensation  is  allowed  for 
injury. 

4.  Extent  and  growth  of  workmen's  compensation  meas- 

ures. 
Forty-one  foreign  countries,  including  all  European 


HISTORY  129 

countries  excepting  Turkey,  and  twenty-four  States 
of  the  United  States,  have  compensation  laws. 

In  the  United  States  twenty-seven  commissions,  not  in- 
cluding federal,  have  been  appointed  since  1910  to 
work  on  the  matter. 

New  York  was  the  first  State  to  enact  compensation 
laws.  This  action  was  taken  in  1910. 

Illinois  enacted  laws  in  1911  and  again  in  1913. 

II.  The  basic  principle  is  that  loss  through  accident  shall  be 
made  a  charge  upon  industry 

1.  Losses  incident  to  industrial  activities. 

a.  Employer  bears  loss  in  capital. 

b.  Workman  loses  life  or  limb  and  money,  the  latter 
in  wages  and  doctor's  bills. 

2.  Ways  of  dealing  with  injury  other  than  by  legal  com- 

pensation. 

a.  Liability  insurance. 

$22,000,0001  was  paid  by  employers  to  liability 
insurance  companies  in  1908  to  carry  their  accident 
risks. 

$5,500,000  finally  reached  the  workmen. 

$16,500,000 ? 

b.  Common  law. 

Three  defenses  made:  fault  of  fellow- workers; 
workman  assumed  risk;  negligence. 

Only  the  latter  is  a  reasonable  defense.  The  two 
first  are  unfair  to  the  worker,  and  the  last  is  difficult 
to  trace  to  its  source  and  the  employer  is  apt  to 
lose  through  an  unfair  jury. 

3.  Justice  of  law. 

The  law  should  be: 
Liberal  as  may  be  to  worker  and  dependents. 
Fair  to  employer. 

4.  Extracts  from  model  laws. 
Extracts  from  Illinois  law. 


130  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

REFERENCES 

First  Annual  Report  of  the  Industrial  Board  of  Illinois,  for  the 

fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1914. 
Workmen's  Compensation  Act.   Prepared  by  the  Legislative 

Reference  Bureau,  Industrial  Board  of  Illinois,  1914. 
Standards  for  Workmen's  Compensation  Laws.    American 

Association  for  Labor  Legislation,  131  East  23d  St.,  New 
,   York  City,  September,  1914. 

It  should  be  noted  in  conclusion,  that  both  "Hygiene 
for  the  Worker"  and  the  "History  of  Work  and  Work- 
ers" lead  naturally  and  inevitably  to  "Civics  for  the 
Worker." 

This  whole  subject  must  be  treated  mainly  by  the 
"lecture  method,"  since  little  reading  can  be  expected 
of  the  boys,  owing  both  to  the  nature  of  the  material 
and  to  the  extreme  difficulty  of  finding  any  connected 
presentation  of  it  simple  and  brief  enough  to  come 
within  their  comprehension.  . 

The  value  of  the  subject,  however,  will  be  all  but  lost 
unless  the  teacher  can  succeed  in  stimulating  the  imagi- 
nation, thus  making  the  subject  vital  and  vivid.  This 
can  be  done  by  interpreting  the  "lecture  method"  as  a 
"story-telling  method"  and  by  enriching  the  material 
in  every  possible  way.  The  teacher  should  be  able  to 
get  from  the  few  references,  given  at  the  end  of  this 
article,  interest  and  information  sufficient  to  carry  the 
work  to  a  successful  issue,  provided  too  much  is  not 
demanded  of  the  pupils.  Frankly,  little  of  the  tradi- 
tional kind  of  reaction  can  be  expected,  but  the  thought- 
ful teacher  will  value  far  above  this  the  eager  and  dis- 
criminating questions  with  which  the  young  students  of 
"  economic  history"  ply  their  instructor.  He  will  prob- 
ably be  unable  to  answer  all  these  questions,  but  so 


HISTORY  131 

much  the  better,  because  an  entirely  new  relationship 
will  have  been  established  and  both  teacher  and  pupil 
have  much  to  gain  thereby. 

But  of  course  the  boys  must  be  given  something  to  do. 
At  the  beginning  the  principal  source  of  information  for 
the  boys,  aside  from  the  "lectures,"  should  be  the  people 
whom  they  can  question  outside  the  school,  —  their 
relatives  and  friends.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the 
school  period  must  be  given  almost  wholly  to  "story- 
telling" and  "round-table"  discussion.  The  teacher 
may  be  surprised  at  the  amount  and  variety  of  informa- 
tion contributed  by  the  boys. 

A  little  later  the  pupils  can  be  assigned  short,  well- 
chosen  references  to  read.  These  should  be  carefully 
marked  and  definitely  limited,  and  should  be  easily 
accessible.  They  can  be  chosen  from  a  variety  of 
sources,  some  of  which  will  be  noted  at  the  close  of  the 
chapter. 

From  the  beginning  the  pupils  should  keep  note- 
books. The  "notes,"  however,  should  be  largely  dic- 
tated by  the  teacher  at  the  close  of  the  general  dis- 
cussion. If,  in  the  beginning,  these  notes  consist  of  but 
one  question  a  day,  together  with  the  briefest  possible 
answer,  legibly  written,  the  teacher  should  be  satisfied. 
In  this  way  a  textbook,  meager,  to  be  sure,  is  built  up 
little  by  little.  The  joy  of  the  pupils  as  they  look  back 
two  or  three  weeks  and  realize  that  they  know  the 
answers  to  the  various  questions  is,  in  itself,  ample 
proof  that  the  subject  is  vital  and  that  the  method  is 
sound. 

In  place  of  the  pupil's  ability  to  give  certain  histori- 
cal facts  and  dates,  the  teacher  of  this  kind  of  history 
must  be  glad  to  accept  an  enthusiasm  for  the  discussion 


132  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

of  the  question  presented  and  a  growing  interest  in, 
and  intelligence  about,  our  marvelous,  complicated, 
twentieth-century  industrial  life.  When  carried  out  as 
above  suggested  and  by  an  enthusiastic  teacher,  such 
results  may  be  confidently  predicted. 

LIST  OF  GENERAL  REFERENCES 
(For  the  teacher) 

The  New  History.   James  Harvey  Robinson.   Chap.  v.   The 

Macmillan  Company. 
History  and  Principles  of  Organized  Labor.  Frank  T.  Carlton, 

D.  C.  Heath  &  Company. 
The  Labor  Question.  Washington  Gladden.  The  Pilgrim  Press. 
The   Community  and  the  Citizen.     Arthur  William  Dunn. 

D.  C.  Heath  &  Company. 
Preparing  for  Citizenship.  William  Backus  Guitteau.  Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Company. 
Government  and  Politics  in  the  United  States.  William  Backus 

Guitteau.    Houghton  Mifflin  Company. 
History  of  the  United  States.    Bourne  and  Benton.    D.  C. 

Heath  &  Company. 
Meaning  of  the  Civil  War.    Article  by  Andrew  Cunningham 

McLaughlin,  The  University  of  Chicago.    The  University 

Record,  July,  1915.    Page  138-148. 

SPECIFIC   REFERENCES 

{For  the  pupils) 

A  School  History  of  the  United  States.    William  H.  Mace. 
Rand,  McNally  &  Company. 

Page$ 

Colonial  life 95-117 

Social  classes 98 

How  social  differences  were  shown 99 

Social  life 10O-101 

The  Patroons 79 

Industrial  and  social  development  from 

Washington  to  Civil  War 279-294 


HISTORY  133 

The  New  Industrial  Era 415-446 

Corporations 439 

Growth  of  labor  organizations 439 

Strikes 440-442 

Railroad  and  other  strikes  (1877-1886)  440-441 

Chicago  Anarchists  (1886) 441 

Homestead  strike  (1892) 441 

Coal  strikes  (1900-1902) 442 

A  History  of  the  United  States.  S.  E.  Foreman.   The  Century 
Company. 
Early  America  a  place   for   laborers   and 

work  one  hundred  years  ago 23-29 

Slaves  and  indentured  servants 82-83 

Occupations,  1700 83 

Farm  implements,  1800 179 

Inventions,  manufacture,  and  transporta- 
tion     180-183 

Everyday  life 183-184 

National  roads,  1818 207 

Steamboats 207-208 

Life  in  Middle  West  (in  early  days) 210-212 

Development  (industrial),  1820-1840 239-248 

Development  (industrial),  1800-1860 298-303 

The  New  West. 375-386 

Present-day  progress 410-418 

Elementary  American  History  and  Government.    Woodburn 
and  Moran.    Longmans,  Green  &  Company. 

Colonial  life 105-116 

Erie  Canal 253 

Industrial  development,  1798-1829 256-276 

Tools 257-258 

Livestock;  patents 258-259 

Steam  engine  (1769) 259 

Manufacturing 259 

England  and  inventions 260 

Slater's  Mill 260 

Cotton  gin 260-262 

Wool,  iron,  hard  coal 262-263 


134  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Humble  inventions 263 

Commerce 263 

Shipbuilding 264 

Westward  movement  and  Western  pio- 
neering    264-269 

Fulton,  steamboats,  Erie  Canal 270-273 

General  progress 276 

Social  and  industrial  progress,  1829  to  1865  375-389 
Canals,  railroads,  manufactures,  discov- 
eries, etc 376-388 

Physical  and  economic  union  of  the  States  389 

Industrial  development  since  Civil  War 427-448 

Labor-saving  machinery 427 

Sale  of  American  machines 428-430 

The  age  of  machinery 480 

Reasons  for  progress 430 

Agriculture,  mills,  manufacture 430-436 

Reasons  for  industrial  supremacy 436-438 

Railroads,  telegraph,  etc 439-443 

Labor  problems 444 

American  Federation  of  Labor 444 

Employers'  Associations 445 

A  History  of  the  United  States.  Thwaites  and  Kendall.  Hough- 
ton Mifflin  Company. 

Introduction  of  negro  slaves 60 

Indentured  servants 60 

Our  country,  1849-1853 270, 271 

Economic  aspect  of  negro  slavery  in  the 

South 307-310, 418 

Western  development 404-407 

Labor  troubles,  1873-1877 407-408 

Later  labor  troubles 421, 433, 457,  458 

Effect  of  machinery  on  work 409 

Railway  and  coal  strikes  and  unemploy- 
ment   433, 457-458 

Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Act 461 

Supplementary  chapter i  to  ix 

(Shows  industrial  progress  in  population, 
area,  wealth  etc.) 


HISTORY  135 

An  Elementary  History  of  Our  Country.   Eva  March  Tappan. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company. 

Early  customs  of  New  England 83-88 

(Illustration  of  "Home  Period"  of  industry.) 

Patroon  system 91-92 

Investigation  of  great  corporations 246-247 

Our  country  to-day 250-252 

Industrial  History  of  the  United  States.    Katharine  Coman. 
The  Macmillan  Company. 
Labor  organization. 

First  strikes 261 

Labor  movement  during  Civil  War 289 

Standard  Oil  Trust 327 

Organization  of  labor 331 

American  Federation 332 

Strike  statistics 333 

Criticisms 336 

Employers'  Associations 337 


CHAPTER  IX 

SCIENCE 

The  major  purpose  of  the  work  in  science  for  pre- 
vocational  boys  is  not  to  turn  out  scientists  capable  of 
doing  elaborate  scientific  work,  but  to  create  a  rudi- 
mentary interest  in  scientific  facts  and  principles;  to 
call  attention  to  and  explain  the  more  obvious  and 
simple  phenomena  which  the  boys  meet  in  their  daily 
surroundings;  to  lead  the  pupils  to  see  that  science 
means  the  substitution  of  real  knowledge  for  mere  guess- 
work, —  the  development  of  rational  procedure  in  the 
place  of  the  antiquated  rule  of  thumb;  to  give  an  idea 
of  the  important  part  which  the  development  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  has  played  in  our  modern  industrial 
progress;  and  to  give  some  practice  in  reasoning  and  in 
applying  some  of  the  principles  of  science. 

Furthermore,  the  work  in  science  is  so  organized  as 
to  make  a  demand  on  the  pupil  for  more  accurate  use 
of  English,  drawing,  and  mathematics.  His  interest  in 
scientific  phenomena  thus  serves  as  a  correlating  princi- 
ple for  other  school  work. 

No  attempt  is  made  to  cover  the  whole  field  of  general 
science  for  the  purpose  of  laying  a  foundation  for  future 
systematic  and  specialized  science  work.  Rather  such 
facts  are  chosen  for  presentation  as  will  appeal  to  the 
present  interests  of  the  boys  or  such  as  seem  peculiarly 
appropriate  to  the  domestic  or  occupational  life  of 
the  worker.    Neither  is  the  claim  made  that  the  facts 


SCIENCE  187 

suggested  here  are  the  only  ones  or  even  the  best  which 
might  be  selected.  They  are  merely  suggested  from  a 
great  body  of  truth  from  which  any  teacher  may  draw 
with  the  testimony  that  they  have  all  been  worked  out 
in  prevocational  classes  and  found  satisfactory.  Of 
course,  in  presenting  the  work  to  the  pupils  no  attempt 
is  made  to  differentiate  and  "classify"  it  as  "physics" 
or  "biology."  The  following  is  merely  given  as  indica- 
tive of  the  range  of  science  which  the  course  covers:  — 

Physics : 

Elementary  mechanics. 
Heat  and  ventilation. 
Air  pressure  and  pumps. 
Light  and  sound. 

Chemistry: 
Air. 
Water. 
Bleaching. 

Foods.    Their  fuel  and  nutritive  values. 
Drugs  and  patent  medicines. 
Disinfectants  and  preservatives. 

Biology: 

Bacteria,  useful  and  harmful. 
Household  pests.1 

Since  only  a  limited  amount  of  time  can  be  devoted 
to  science,  and  since  the  purpose  of  giving  it  is  slightly 
different  from  that  which  is  usually  urged  for  high- 
school  science,  for  example,  it  is  desirable  to  note  the 
way  in  which  the  subject  is  presented,  especially  as 
the  laboratory  method  is  not  employed.   In  defense  of 

1  The  intimate  relation  between  the  materia!  suggested  in  this  brief 
outline  and  some  of  the  work  given  under  "Physiology  and  Hygiene," 
and  also  under  "Civics,"  is  obvious.  There  is  no  duplication,  but 
rather  a  reinforcement. 


138  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

the  method  described  in  the  following  paragraphs,  it 
may  be  said  that,  as  only  four  hours  a  week  are  de- 
voted to  the  subject,  a  science  course  would  be  rather 
unproductive  if  divided  between  laboratory  work  and 
classroom  instruction.  If  the  time  were  devoted  en- 
tirely to  laboratory  work  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
more  would  be  accomplished.  Even  if  we  grant  that  a 
few  more  scientific  facts  and  principles  could  be  learned 
through  laboratory  work,  the  proposed  method  more 
than  compensates  for  any  loss  in  this  respect  by  the 
gain  in  the  pupil's  ability  to  interpret  the  printed  page 
and  to  express  himself  in  writing  and  in  drawing. 
Moreover,  the  work  in  the  shops  provides  considerable 
concrete  information  of  a  scientific  nature.  This  makes 
the  demand  for  laboratory  work  in  science  less  impera- 
tive. 

A  method  which  has  been  found  successful  is  to  have 
the  pupils  study  a  general  science  textbook  and  other 
supplementary  material,  and  to  make  notebooks  which, 
when  completed,  constitute  illustrated  textbooks  cover- 
ing almost  the  entire  work  given  in  the  subject.  Dem- 
onstrations are  given  by  the  teacher  to  arouse  interest, 
and  to  make  the  work  concrete.  They  are  such  as  can 
be  performed  with  relatively  little  apparatus,  or  at 
least  with  such  equipment  as  can  be  used  in  an  ordinary 
classroom. 

The  textbooks  are  used  as  reference  books  and  for 
the  purpose  of  supplementing  information  given  by  the 
teacher  during  the  demonstrations. 

Any  good  textbook  on  general  science  may  be  used, 
but  no  book  can  be  relied  on  as  sufficient  in  itself.  The 
teacher's  presentation  of  the  subject  and  his  ability  to 
relate  it  to  the  everyday  interests  of  the  pupils  are  the 


SCIENCE  139 

important  factors  in  the  problem.  The  following  text- 
books have  been  found  to  contain  satisfactory  reference 
material  for  prevocational  boys :  — 

General  Science.  Bertha  M.  Clark.  American  Book  Co. 
This  book  formed  the  basis  of  much  of  the  science  work  with 
the  Boy's  Industrial  Class  at  the  University  of  Chicago. 

The  First  Year  of  Science.  J.  C.  Hessler.  B.  J.  Sanborn  &  Co. 
This  contains  good  material. 

Multiple  copies  of  direct  questions,  based  on  the  text 
and  on  the  demonstrations,  are  prepared  and  each  pupil 
is  supplied  with  a  copy.  The  nature  of  these  questions 
will  be  seen  from  typical  illustrations  which  appear 
below. 

The  usual  classroom  procedure  is  to  begin  with  the 
demonstration  and  to  follow  this  by  the  reading  of 
the  texts  and  by  notebook  work  guided  by  the  question 
sheets.  When  there  is  no  demonstration,  the  teacher 
makes  an  assignment  in  which  he  tries  to  arouse  a  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  pupils  to  study  the  text.  This  is  fol- 
lowed by  recitation  work  in  which  the  pupils  answer 
orally  the  questions  on  the  question  sheet.  During 
these  oral  recitations,  the  slower  pupils  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  profit  from  the  recitations  of  the  brighter 
ones,  and  the  difficulties  found  in  the  text  are  cleared  up 
for  all.  Then  the  lesson  is  concluded  by  notebook  work. 
At  this  point  the  character  of  the  question  sheets,  upon 
which  the  notebook  work  is  based,  must  be  described. 
At  first  the  questions  follow  the  text  rather  closely  and 
are  designed  to  aid  the  pupil  in  mastering  the  text  by 
focusing  his  attention  on  the  main  thoughts.  These 
questions  are  so  worded  as  to  encourage  the  pupil  to  use 
his  own  vocabulary  rather  than  the  words  found  in  the 
text.   Often  they  break  up  the  thought  of  a  long  and 


140  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

rather  involved  sentence  into  several  shorter  sentences, 
thus  enabling  the  pupil  to  get  the  meaning  of  the  para- 
graph which  was  obscured  by  the  long  sentence.  Often 
a  question  is  so  worded  that  its  answer  involves  giving 
the  thought  of  a  whole  paragraph.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  work  subordinate  questions  are  placed  under  these 
major  questions,  to  assist  the  pupil  in  formulating  a 
logical  and  intelligent  answer.  A  typical  question  of  the 
latter  kind  follows.  It  is  based  upon  a  paragraph  de- 
scribing how  a  Fahrenheit  thermometer  is  graduated. 
The  main  question  and  its  subordinates  follow:  — 

Q.  How  is  a  Fahrenheit  thermometer  graduated? 

A.  Begin :  —  A  thermometer  is  graduated  in  the  following 

way :  Then  answer  the  following :  — 
(a)  How  is  the  212°  mark  found? 
(6)  How  is  the  32°  mark  found? 

(c)  How  many  degrees  are  there  then  between  the  32°  mark 
and  the  212°  mark? 

(d)  Now,  if  we  want  each  space  between  the  melting  point 
of  ice  and  the  boiling  point  of  water  to  represent  two 
degrees,  how  many  spaces  will  there  be  between  the  32° 
mark  and  the  212°  mark? 

(e)  How  long,  then,  will  each  space  be? 
(/)  How  is  this  length  of  space  used? 

As  the  pupils  improve  in  their  ability  to  write  in 
better  form  and  reach  the  point  where  they  can  dispense 
with  the  subordinate  questions,  the  questions  follow  the 
text  less  closely,  become  less  specific  and  particular  in 
character,  and  involve  the  composition  of  several  related 
sentences,  comprising  a  paragraph.  Toward  the  end  of 
the  year's  work,  outlines  are  prepared  from  which  the 
pupils  write  shorter  or  longer  compositions  on  scientific 
subjects. 

Correlation  between  science  and  drawing  is  secured 


SCIENCE  141 

by  so  wording  a  question  that  it  calls  for  graphic  ex- 
pression in  connection  with  the  answer.  Mathematics 
is  correlated  with  science  by  inserting  among  the  ques- 
tions problems  concerning  levers,  the  inclined  plane, 
pulleys,  the  differential  pulley,  the  wheel  and  axle,  the 
screw,  the  lifting-jack,  gears,  the  bicycle,  the  geared 
windlass,  etc.  These  problems  involve  the  use  of  the 
processes  of  addition,  multiplication,  division,  and  sub- 
traction of  whole  numbers  and  especially  of  common 
fractions  and  decimals. 

Practice  in  reasoning  is  afforded  by  inserting  ques- 
tions and  exercises  which  call  for  the  application  of 
principles  found  in  the  text.  As  a  rule  the  answers  to 
questions  of  this  type  are  not  found  in  the  book.  The 
following  are  samples  of  the  exercises  of  this  kind :  — 

(a)  If  you  were  a  track  foreman  on  a  railroad,  what  direc- 
tions would  you  give  your  gang  for  laying  rails  in  the 
winter? 

(b)  Why? 

(c)  If  you  were  a  lineman  for  a  telephone  company,  how 
would  you  string  the  wires  in  summer? 

(<T)  Why? 

(e)  How  does  the  boiler-maker  take  advantage  of  contrac- 
tion due  to  cooling  when  he  rivets  boiler  plates  together? 

In  some  cases,  instead  of  following  the  above  method, 
the  inductive  development  lesson  precedes  the  study  of 
the  text. 

While  the  pupils  are  studying  the  texts  and  answer- 
ing the  questions,  the  instructor  has  an  opportunity  to 
give  individual  instruction  on  points  which  are  not  made 
entirely  clear  in  the  demonstration,  or  which  the  pupils 
find  obscure  in  the  text.  He  has  also  the  opportunity  of 
calling  attention  to  mistakes  in  spelling,  sentence  struc- 


142  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

ture,  punctuation,  and  erroneous  answers;  and  to  make 
suggestions  in  regard  to  the  drawing. 

One  feature  of  the  instruction  which,  it  is  believed, 
accounts  largely  for  its  success,  and  which  should  be 
characteristic  of  all  prevocational  work,  is  that  the  boys 
are  continually  encouraged  when  they  show  the  least 
interest,  accomplishment,  or  improvement  in  their  work, 
and  are  almost  never  told  that  they  are  doing  poor  or 
worthless  work.  Instead  they  are  shown  by  example 
how  they  can  improve,  and  are  given  the  commenda- 
tion they  deserve. 

A  word  must  be  said  in  regard  to  the  motivation  of 
the  notebook  work.  The  sources  of  information  are 
numerous  enough  to  prevent  the  boys  coming  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  notebook  work  could  be  made  un- 
necessary through  the  purchase  of  a  textbook.  The 
fact  is  pointed  out  that  each  boy  will  be  compiling  a 
book  for  himself  which  will  contain  information  drawn 
from  many  sources,  the  purchase  of  which  would  involve 
considerable  expense.  Some  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  fact 
that  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  put  into  the  notebooks 
only  the  most  valuable  information,  the  less  valuable 
and  too  technical  being  disregarded.  Special  emphasis  is 
laid  on  the  fact  that  the  boys  have  an  opportunity  to 
create  something  which  will  be  of  value  to  them;  which 
they  may  exhibit  with  pride  to  their  parents,  if  they 
choose  to  make  it  creditable;  which  will  be  representa- 
tive of  the  work  of  the  class  and  which,  in  case  of  a 
school  exhibit,  may  be  shown  with  considerable  credit 
to  themselves  and  the  class. 

Several  encouraging  results  have  been  obtained. 
First,  there  is  an  added  interest  in  reading  about  scien- 
tific truths,  and  an  added  ability  to  learn  from  the 


SCIENCE  143 

printed  page.  Second,  there  is  the  acquisition  of  a  few 
fundamental  and  useful  facts.  Third,  the  work  develops 
an  interest  in,  and  to  some  extent  an  understanding  of, 
the  scientific  features  of  industrial  processes  many  of 
which  can  be  illustrated  in  the  shopwork.  Fourth,  there 
is  acquired  by  the  pupil  added  ability  to  express  him- 
self in  writing  and  drawing.  Fifth,  the  observation  of 
the  simple  rules  of  punctuation  and  capitalization  tends 
to  become  habitual,  and  the  pupils  become  more  efficient 
in  the  fundamental  operations  of  arithmetic.  Sixth,  the 
boys  frequently  acquire  a  keen  zest  in  writing  and  re- 
writing their  notebooks,  some  of  which  finally  reach  a 
point  of  genuine  excellence. 

The  following  illustrative  material  is  planned  to  show 
in  a  concrete  way  how  a  given  topic  is  treated,  —  for 
example,  Heat.  Under  this  general  heading  are  given 
the  following:  — 

Introduction. 

General  Effects  of  Heat. 

Expansion  and  Contraction. 

Uses  of  Expansion  and  Contraction. 

Methods  of  Heating  Buildings. 

Ventilation. 

Methods  of  Transmitting  Heat. 

Measuring  Heat. 

Sources  of  Heat. 

The  following  questions  are  selected  from  a  total  of 
ninety-eight  covering  this  general  topic,  and  are  illus- 
trative of  the  principles  which  have  been  described 
above:  — 

HEAT 
A.  Introduction 

1.  Show  how  heat  and  fire  do  damage  every  day. 

2.  Tell  how  heat  is  used  for  good  purposes. 


144  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

B.  General  Effects  of  Heat 

1.  Expansion  and  Contraction. 

o.  Tell  how  you  could  prove  that  heat  makes  water  ex- 
pand. 

(1)  First  tell  what  things  you  would  use. 

(2)  Then  tell  how  you  would  use  them. 

b.  How  could  you  show  that  heat  makes  air  expand? 

c.  Make  up  an  experiment  to  show  that  heat  causes  ex- 
pansion. 

(1)  Tell  first  what  materials  you  would  use. 

(2)  Then  tell  how  you  would  use  them. 

d.  How  do  you  think  things  act  when  they  are  cooled? 

e.  What  in  general  may  we  say  is  the  general  effect  of 
heat  and  cold? 

2.  Exceptions.  Heat  does  not  always  cause  expansion. 

a.  Does   ice,   for   example,  expand   or   contract   when 
heated? 

b.  How  does  water  act  when  cooled  from  39°  Fahrenheit 
to  32°? 

c.  Are  there  any  metals  that  contract  when  heated? 

C,  Uses  of  Expansion  and  Contraction 

1.  How  does  the  blacksmith  make  use  of  heat  to  make  iron 

expand? 

2.  How  does  he  make  use  of  the  contraction  due  to  cooling? 

3.  How  do  boiler-makers  make  use  of  contraction  due  to 

cooling? 

4.  If  you  were  track  foreman  on  a  railroad,  what  directions 

would  you  give  for  laying  the  rails  in  winter?  Why? 

5.  How  would  you  order  them  to  be  laid  in  summer?  Why? 

6.  If  you  were  lineman  for  a  telephone  company,  how  would 

you  string  the  wires  in  summer?  Why? 

7.  What  causes  cement  walks  to  hump  and  crack  in  summer? 

8.  How  could  this  be  prevented? 

D.  Methods  of  Heating  Buildings 

1.  In  early  times  before  stoves  were  invented,  how  were 

buildings  heated? 

2.  Explain  why  smoke  goes  up  the  chimney. 


SCIENCE  145 

3.  Why  is  the  open  fireplace  a  healthful  way  of  heating? 

4.  In  what  respect  was  the  stove  an  advance  over  the  fire- 

place as  a  means  of  heating? 

5.  What  part  is  played  by  the  draft  or  inlet  of  a  stove? 

6.  What  harm  is  done  by  having  the  damper  of  the  stove 

wide  open  all  the  time? 

7.  Which  is  the  better  way  of  heating  a  building;  by  stoves 

or  by  a  hot-air  furnace?   Give  two  reasons  why  you 
think  as  you  do. 

8.  Explain  by  means  of  a  diagram  how  a  hot-air  furnace 

works. 

9.  The  hot-water  heating  system. 

a.  What  should  you  say  led  to  the  invention  of  hot-water 
heating  systems? 

b.  Draw  a  diagram  of  a  two-room  house  with  a  hot-water 
boiler  in  the  basement  and  explain  how  the  water  cir- 
culates. 

c.  How  does  the  hot  water  in  the  radiators  heat  the 
rooms? 

d.  What  does  a  hot-air  furnace  do  that  a  hot-water  heat- 
ing system  does  not  do? 

e.  How  is  ventilation  provided  for  in  connection  with 
some  hot-water  heating  systems? 

/.  Why  is  ventilation  necessary? 

g.  In  what  respects  are  hot-water  systems  better  than 
hot-air  furnaces? 

10.  The  steam-heating  system. 

a.  Draw  the  cross-section  of  a  two-room  house  which  is 
heated  by  steam  and  explain  how  the  system  works. 

b.  What  device  is  used  to  prevent  boilers  from  blowing 
up?  Show  how  it  works. 

c.  In  what  respects  is  heating  by  steam  better  than  heat- 
ing by  hot  water? 

d.  On  the  other  hand,  what  advantages  has  hot  water 
over  steam  heating? 

11.  Make  a  short  summary  on  the  three  ways  of  heating. 

Begin:  We  may  summarize  on  the  three  ways  of  heat- 
ing by  saying: 

a.  First,  give  the  advantages  of  the  hot-air  furnace. 

b.  Then  give  its  disadvantages. 


146  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

c.  Give  the  good  points  of  heating  by  hot  water. 

d.  Then  tell  its  weak  points. 

e.  Close  with  a  statement  of  which  system  you  prefer. 

E.  Methods  of  Transmitting  Beat 

1.  Convection. 

a.  Define  convection. 

b.  How  does  the  Gulf  Stream  illustrate  the  transference 
of  heat  by  convection? 

c.  Give  two  more  examples  of  heat  transferred  by  con- 
vection. 

2.  Conduction. 

a.  Define  conduction. 

b.  Give  two  examples  of  heating  by  conduction. 

c.  Define  good  and  poor  conduction  of  heat. 

d.  Show  how  poor  conductors  of  heat  are  made  use  of. 

e.  Show  how  good  conductors  are  made  use  of. 

3.  The  fireless  cooker. 

a.  Explain  the  construction  of  the  fireless  cooker.  (Draw 
diagram.) 

b.  Upon  what  principle  did  its  invention  depend? 

4.  Radiation. 

o.  Explain  radiation  of  heat. 

5.  Describe  the  processes  which  take  place  when  rooms  are 

heated  by  steam. 

F.  Measuring  Heat 

1.  Show  that  while  the  temperature  of  a  body  tells  how  hot 

the  body  is,  it  does  not  tell  the  amount  of  heat  in  the 
body. 

2.  Tell  how  heat  is  measured. 

a.  The  calorie. 

b.  Calculation  of  number  of  calories. 

c.  The  British  thermal  unit. 

d.  Calculation  of  number  of  B.  T.  U.'s. 

3.  Specific  heat. 

a.  Introduction. 

b.  Definition. 

c.  What  does  the  specific  heat  of  a  substance  tell  you? 

d.  Give  several  examples  to  make  this  clear. 


CHAPTER  X 

ENGLISH 

All  agree  that  English  is  one  of  the  essential  subjects 
for  prevocational  classes,  but  there  is  little  uniformity 
of  opinion  regarding  the  content  of  a  course  of  study  or 
the  major  and  subordinate  purposes  which  should  de- 
termine the  methods  of  teaching  it.  It  is  sometimes 
contended  that  so-called  "Business  English,"  consisting 
of  business  forms  and  shop  correspondence,  is  of  prime 
importance  and  should  be  made  the  central  feature  of 
the  course.  It  is  reasoned  that  these  children  may  have 
but  one  or  two  years  more  of  school  work,  and  since 
they  are  backward  and  "anti-book"  there  is  little  or  no 
hope  of  realizing  the  results  for  which  English  is  usually 
taught.  For  many  reasons  this  point  of  view  is  unten- 
able, and  the  teacher  of  English  in  a  prevocational  class 
should  be  governed  by  more  vital  considerations.  It 
should  be  recalled  that  we  are  trying  to  include  in  all 
prevocational  work  the  fundamentals,  —  the  essentials 
of  the  traditional  school  work  to  the  fullest  extent  possi- 
ble, and  that  many  of  the  children  gain  a  new  interest 
in  school  life  and  continue  for  three  or  four  years  be- 
yond the  compulsory  school  period.  It  will  be  well, 
therefore,  to  analyze  carefully  the  purposes  dominat- 
ing the  usual  school  courses  in  English,  and  to  deter- 
mine the  extent  to  which  such  purposes  apply  in  the 
prevocational  classes. 

In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  recalled  that  English 
is  the  only  school  subject  which  is  required  in  each  of 


148  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

the  twelve  years  of  the  traditional  public-school  system. 
With  the  exception  of  English,  almost  any  subject  given 
in  the  prevocational  school  may  be  conducted  as  an 
initial  or  introductory  course,  but  not  so  with  English. 
Here  the  fact  must  be  recognized  that  the  children 
come  to  the  work  with  such  prejudices  and  predilec- 
tions as  have  been  engendered  by  seven  or  eight  years 
of  schoolroom  practice.  So  far  as  accomplishment  is 
concerned,  nothing  can  be  taken  for  granted  beyond 
the  merest  rudiments,  yet  it  is  fatal  to  conclude  that  the 
ordinary  primary  or  elementary  methods  may  be  em- 
ployed. It  is  probable  that  prevocational  children  differ 
more  widely  in  their  ability  and  training  in  English  than 
in  any  other  school  subject. 

As  noted  above,  English  is  the  one  required  twelve- 
year  course.  The  makers  of  English  courses  have 
apparently  decided  just  what  should  be  accomplished 
in  each  of  the  twelve  years  on  the  supposition  that  all 
pupils  will  complete  the  twelve  grades.  Therefore  an 
analysis  of  the  purposes  of  the  full  twelve-year  course 
is  pertinent  as  a  basis  for  determining  what  may  be 
attempted  in  the  prevocational  class. 

Reduced  to  their  simplest  forms  these  purposes  seem 
to  be  as  follows :  — 
I       To  secure  mere  literacy,  —  the  mastery  of  the  funda- 
mental mechanics  of  reading. 
j?      To  develop  power  of  expression  by  means  of  oral  and 
written  language. 

To  impart  knowledge  about  the  structure  and  form 
of  the  language. 
'  To  develop  an  appreciation  for  good  literature. 

To  give  information  about  English  and  American 
authors  and  their  works. 


ENGLISH  149 

Another  purpose  which  is  worthy  of  special  comment 
is  the  development  of  the  ability  to  "handle  books,"  as  in 
research  work  and  in  the  general  use  of  the  library,  — to 
get  on  familiar  and  friendly  terms  with  the  printed  page. 

It  has  generally  been  assumed,  however,  that  this 
latter  purpose,  this  ability  to  handle  books,  would  result 
naturally  and  inevitably  from  the  English  work,  —  that 
it  was,  in  fact,  an  assured  by-product,  and  that  no 
special  attention  need  be  given  to  its  cultivation. 

It  may  now  be  asked  which  of  these  purposes  are 
possible  of  realization  and  are  peculiarly  appropriate 
for  the  pupils  in  question. 

We  may  assume  literacy,  the  mere  ability  to  read, 
though  the  "near-illiterate"  is  a  decided  problem  in 
prevocational  work.  The  majority  of  the  pupils  can 
read  and  a  small  proportion  can  read  excellently. 

Assuming  literacy,  what  has  been  described  above  as 
a  by-product  will  be  found  to  be  the  prime  motive  for 
prevocational  English.  In  no  other  respect  is  the  need 
of  the  children  so  great  as  for  the  ability  to  interpret 
the  printed  page  as  a  vital  message,  and  in  no  other 
way  can  their  highest  and  permanent  advancement  be 
secured  so  certainly  as  by  developing  such  ability. 

Technical  grammar  and  history  of  literature  should  be 
excluded  from  our  consideration  except  as  they  may  be 
taken  up  with  individual  pupils  where  special  interest 
has  been  developed. 

With  the  foregoing  as  a  background  the  purposes  of  a 
course  in  English  for  a  prevocational  class  may  be  re- 
stated as  follows :  — 

The  first  purpose  is  to  develop  a  genuine  fondness  for 
books  of  some  kind,  and  a  desire  to  read  as  a  means  of 
recreation. 


150  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  second  purpose  should  be  to  bring  to  the  pupils 
some  realization  of  the  dependence  of  the  civilized  world 
on  books,  —  not  merely  literary  works,  but  informa- 
tional works  as  well,  —  and  to  show  them  that  the  abil- 
ity to  handle  books  will  contribute  to  their  own  success, 
the  purpose  being  to  induce  them  to  read  for  informa- 
tion. 

A  third  purpose  is  the  development  of  the  power  of 
oral  and  written  expression,  through  class  discussions, 
descriptions,  and  oral  reading,  the  latter  by  those  only 
who  can  read  well,  and  by  means  of  transcriptions,  and 
the  written  exercises  required  in  the  other  subjects,  in- 
cluding some  work  in  spelling. 

A  fourth  purpose  is  the  development  of  aesthetic  ap- 
preciation, not  of  literature  merely,  but  of  any  worthy 
and  beautiful  thing  of  which  literary  men  and  women 
have  written  and  in  which  an  initial  interest  has  been 
aroused  in  the  minds  of  the  children.  The  major  purpose 
is  to  develop  idealism  and  a  love  of  the  beautiful,  but 
care  must  be  taken  that  the  teacher  does  not  substitute 
his  own  joy  for  that  of  the  pupil. 

Stated  still  more  briefly,  prevocational  English  should 
have  for  its  most  important  purpose  the  development 
of  the  reading  habit,  and  the  reading  should  have  for  its 
object  recreation,  information,  and  inspiration,  with  a 
valuable  by-product  in  greater  power  of  expression.  Out 
of  these  various  statements  of  purpose  must  be  evolved 
the  content  and  method  of  the  course. 

For  obvious  reasons  it  is  impossible  to  outline  a  course 
of  study  in  English  for  prevocational  boys  with  the 
same  definiteness,  singleness  of  purpose,  and  inclusive- 
ness  as  is  possible  in  the  case  of  science,  civics  or  history. 
For  that  reason  the  methods  which  have  been  found  sue- 


ENGLISH  151 

cessful  in  accomplishing  the  several  purposes,  as  enumer- 
ated above,  will  be  considered  separately  and  in  direct 
relation  to  the  particular  purpose  under  discussion.  It 
is  evident  that  no  single  lesson  can  be  carried  out  with- 
out combining  two  or  more  of  the  several  purposes.  That 
is  to  say,  it  will  be  impossible  to  develop  reading  for 
entertainment  without  at  the  same  time  increasing  the 
pupil's  ability  to  read  for  information.  A  much  clearer 
conception  of  the  methods  will  be  possible,  however,  if 
each  purpose  is  examined  independently. 

It  is  well  to  reflect,  also,  that  the  individual  teacher 
must  be  guided  in  his  practice  by  the  conditions  of  his 
own  school,  and  that  these  conditions  must  determine, 
to  a  great  extent,  which  purpose  shall  be  paramount  and 
which  shall  be  secondary  and  contributary.  Where  all 
conditions  warrant,  it  will  help  materially  to  divide  the 
class  into  two  or  three  groups,  according  to  ability  in 
reading,  in  order  that  the  methods  may  be  more  accu- 
rately adapted  to  each  individual. 

In  the  following  pages  are  presented  suggestions 
regarding  concrete  material  and  typical  schoolroom 
practices,  together  with  a  discussion  of  the  principles 
involved. 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  near-illiterate  is  a  prob- 
lem in  many  pre  vocational  classes.  With  such  children 
the  first  weeks  are  of  great  importance,  and  if  the  ini- 
tial work  is  tactfully  carried  out,  the  problem  ceases  to 
exist  and  the  classification  may  be  eliminated. 

Undoubtedly  an  initial  impulse  to  read  may  be  given 
in  a  variety  of  ways,  depending  upon  the  personality 
and  natural  interests  of  the  teacher.  The  following  is 
suggested  because  it  can  be  carried  out  by  any  one  will- 
ing to  do  the  work  incident  to  collecting  the  material, 


152  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

and  because  it  has  been  found  by  experiment  to  appeal 
to  a  large  majority  of  the  boys. 

First,  material  must  be  provided  which  will  secure 
and  develop  genuine  self-activity  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil;  second,  it  must  be  extremely  simple  and  straight- 
forward; and  third,  it  must  be  conspicuously  free  from 
"childishness." 

For  the  above  reasons  "trade  material"  has  been 
used.  Such  material  includes  manufacturers'  cata- 
logues, carefully  selected  advertisements,  and  some  of 
the  material  in  trade  journals.  One  magazine,  Popular 
Mechanics,  is  especially  valuable.  As  illustrative  of  such 
material  the  following  publications  are  suggested : 

David  Maydole,  Hammer  Maker.  Published  by  the  David 
Maydole  Hammer  Company,  Norwich,  Chenango  County, 
New  York.  This  is  taken  directly  from  Parton's  Captains  of 
Industry,1  but  it  can  be  had  in  this  form  for  the  asking,  and  it 
always  appeals  to  the  boys. 

The  Story  of  an  Inland  Sheet.  Published  by  the  Inland 
Galvanized  Steel  Company,  office  in  First  National  Bank 
Building,  Chicago,  Illinois.  •* 

Educational  Publications  of  the  International  Harvester  Com- 
pany. These  are  published  by  the  Agricultural  Extension  De- 
partment of  the  company  and  can  be  secured  at  slight  expense 
by  addressing  the  department  at  the  Harvester  Building, 
Chicago.  Some  of  the  most  helpful  of  these  studies  are  The 
Story  of  Bread,  which  correlates  well  with  the  history;  Engine 
Operator's  Guide,  which  is  appropriate  for  the  classes  in  shop- 
work;  and  Trap  the  Fly,  which  reinforces  some  of  the  lessons 
in  hygiene  and  sanitation. 

Logging  by  Steam.  Published  by  the  Lidgerwood  Manu- 
facturing Company,  Fischer  Building,  Chicago. 

The  Illustrated  London  News.   The  only  reading  matter  is 
that  which  is  found  beneath  the  illustrations.  It  serves  as  an 
illustration  of  terse,  descriptive  English  and  helps  in  develop- 
ing good  oral  expression  as  well  as  the  reading  habit. 
1  Houghton  Mifflin  Company. 


ENGLISH  153 

Popular  Mechanics.  This  magazine  is  a  universal  favorite. 
It  deals  with  live,  current  material,  has  excellent  illustrations, 
and  employs  simple  English  and  business  and  shop  terms.  It 
stimulates  the  boys  not  alone  to  verbal  expression,  but  sug- 
gests construction  in  materials  as  well,  including  experimental 
work  of  great  variety. 

Captains  of  Industry.  By  Parton.  This,  in  common  with  all 
large  books,  makes  slight  appeal  to  the  boys  under  discussion, 
but  where  the  single  chapters  are  printed  in  pamphlet  form, 
as  in  the  case  of  David  Maydole,  mentioned  above,  they  are 
extremely  popular.  Where  the  school  operates  a  printing- 
shop,  separate  chapters,  which  are  appropriate  for  individual 
pupils  or  for  a  particular  community,  may  be  reproduced. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  said  that  these  boys  should 
have  frequent  opportunity  to  hear  good  reading.  This 
will  be  discussed  in  another  connection,  but  in  passing 
it  should  be  noted  that  experience  demonstrates  that 
these  very  boys  enjoy  to  the  full,  when  read  by  the 
teacher,  such  things  as  Stevenson's  Treasure  Island, 
John  Fox,  Jr.'s  The  Little  Shepherd  of  Kingdom  Come, 
and  Dickens's  Christmas  Carol. 

Reading  has  long  been  held  in  esteem  as  one  of  the 
highest  forms  of  entertainment.  It  is  relatively  inex- 
pensive, and  books  are  available  to-day  almost  any- 
where in  the  civilized  world.  When  one  reflects  on  these 
facts  it  is  with*  some  surprise  that  he  recalls  how  little 
attention  is  given  in  the  average  school  to  the  develop- 
ment of  reading  for  enjoyment.  It  is  probably  because 
of  the  assumption  that  if  the  school  develops  literacy, 
the  enjoyment  will  naturally  and  inevitably  follow. 
Unfortunately  this  assumption  has  far  too  little  basis  in 
fact.  It  should  be  recalled  that  many  of  these  children 
come  from  homes  in  which  books  are  used  but  little, 
in  which  case  their  chief  contact  with  reading  material 
has  been  with  school  texts.   While  these  are  frequently 


154  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

interesting  if  read  at  will  and  for  pleasure,  the  uses  to 
which  they  have  been  put  in  the  classes  of  which  these 
children  were  members  have  given  little  pleasure  and 
frequently  have  produced  disinclination  on  the  part  of 
some  pupils  to  have  anything  to  do  with  books  of  any 
kind.  To  be  sure,  a  few  of  the  children  are  fond  of  books, 
but  others  heartily  dislike  them.  To  change  this  atti- 
tude of  dislike  into  one  of  fondness  can  be  done  only  by 
studying  the  individual  tastes  and  interests  of  the  sev- 
eral children,  and  by  adapting  the  early  reading  to  these 
individual  tastes. 

The  well-known  librarian,  John  Cotton  Dana,  once 
said  that  in  order  to  induce  a  community  to  read  the 
best  books,  it  was  first  necessary  to  provide  those  which 
the  people  wanted  and  which  they  could  read  easily  and 
quickly,  and  then,  gradually,  to  introduce  the  works 
they  ought  to  have.  The  same  is  essentially  true  of  the 
prevocational  class.  To  develop  the  reading  habit  with 
these  boys  there  should  be  unrestrained  access  to  a  large 
and  varied  assortment  of  books  and  magazines,  some 
of  which  will  certainly  appeal  to  the  boys,  and  a  liberal 
amount  of  school  time  should  be  devoted  to  the  silent 
perusal  of  them  as  a  part  of  the  regular  work  in  English. 
The  familiar  school  practice  of  permitting  the  more 
rapid  workers  to  "read  to  themselves"  on  the  comple- 
tion of  a  given  task  ought  to  serve  as  an  object  lesson 
of  what  should  be  provided  for  all  prevocational  pupils 
with  great  frequency  and  regularity. 

Such  reading,  of  course,  should  be  supervised  and 
sympathetically  directed.  Always  holding  that  the 
"j°y"  °f  tne  pupil  is  to  be  the  first  consideration  at 
this  point,  the  material  may  be  improved  as  rapidly  and 
as  markedly  as  is  consistent  with  the  major  purpose. 


ENGLISH  155 

In  this  way  talks  about  books,  in  the  course  of  personal 
conferences,  will  become  a  feature  of  the  "required 
work,"  and  will  be  conducted  in  the  time  assigned  to 
English.  If  it  should  be  contended  that  such  practice 
would  be  expensive  in  time  and  meager  in  results,  the 
answer  must  be  made  that  it  is  better  to  spend  many 
hours  this  way,  with  nothing  but  a  "love  of  reading" 
as  a  result,  than  to  spend  the  same  amount  of  time  in 
formal  English  work  with  little  resulting  power  to  use 
books  and  no  inclination  to  consult  them  either  for 
pleasure  or  profit.  We  have  been  led  to  feel  that  with 
these  boys,  at  least,  this  reading  for  pleasure  can  be 
carried  over  into  the  field  of  research  reading  and  there- 
fore that  the  love  of  reading  may  be  the  "beginning  of 
wisdom."  It  can  be  accomplished  with  certainty  when 
the  purpose  to  do  so  is  clearly  held  and  wisely  followed. 
Three  elements  are  absolutely  necessary,  however, 
varied  reading  material,  sympathy,  and  school  time. 

To  bring  the  discussion  to  a  concrete  basis  it  is  nec- 
essary to  visualize  the  personal  element  in  the  situation. 
We  must  picture  the  whole  class  of  boys,  not  forgetting 
the  type,  sitting  in  a  schoolroom  for  an  hour,  each  read- 
ing silently  from  a  different  publication  and  upon  a 
different  subject.  This  is  taking  place  in  regular  school 
time  and  as  regular  school  work,  yet  it  is  varied,  indi- 
vidual, and  very  largely  self-directed.  Occasionally  a 
boy  leaves  his  chair,  goes  to  the  bookcase,  deposits  the 
book  he  has  been  reading,  and,  after  examining  three  or 
four,  selects  a  new  book  or  magazine  and  goes  back  to 
his  place.  It  is  surprising  to  find  that  there  is  so  little 
waste  of  time,  so  little  confusion,  such  eager  beginning 
and  such  reluctant  ending  of  the  hour. 

For  the  successful  carrying-out  of  such  a  plan  certain 


156 


PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


features  are  necessary.  In  the  first  place,  there  must  be 
a  variety  of  material,  variety  as  to  subject-matter  and 
as  to  the  kind  of  publications.  There  should  be  books, 
magazines,  and  daily  papers.  In  addition  to  the  trade 
material  mentioned  above  the  following  list  is  given. 
It  is  not  intended  to  be  all-inclusive,  but  is  suggestive  of 
the  variety  and  style  of  reading  material  used  in  some 
prevocational  classes. 

PABTIAL   LIST   OF  READING   MATERIAL    USED 
SHOWING   VARIETY 

Books 
Machine  Shop  Primer. 
Four  Great  American  Inventors. 
Hygiene  for  th   Worker. 
How  it  is  Made. 
Romance  of  Mining. 
Woodworking  for  Beginners. 
Stories  of  Useful  Inventions. 
Harper's  Electricity  for  Boys. 
With  the  Men  Who  Do  Things. 
Home  Experiments  in  Science. 
The  Boy  Mechanic. 
Letters  and  Lettering. 
The  Land  We  Live  In. 
The  Boy  Craftsman. 
The  Boys'  Book  of  Model  Aeroplanes. 
Wireless  Telegraphy. 
All  About  Ships. 

Things  a  Boy  Should  Know  About  Wireless. 
Stories  of  Inventors. 
Heroes  of  Progress. 
American  Inventions  and  Inventors. 
Historic  Boyhoods. 
Stories  of  Industry. 
Industries  of  To-day. 
Geographical  Readers. 
How  the  World  is  Housed. 


Colvin  and  Stanley. 

Perry. 

Tolman. 

Williams. 

Williams. 

Wheeler. 

Forman. 

Adams. 

Bond. 

Sloane. 

Windsor. 

Brown,  F.  C. 

Price. 

Hall. 

Collins. 

Fortescue. 

Darling. 

St.  John 

Doubleday. 

Morris. 

Mowryand  Mowry. 

Holland. 

Am.  Book  Co. 

Ginn  and  Co. 

Carpenter. 

Carpenter. 


ENGLISH 

How  the  World  is  Fed. 

Carpenter. 

How  the  World  is  Clothea. 

Carpenter. 

Great  American  Industries. 

Rocheleau. 

Story  of  Iron  and  Steel. 

Smith. 

The  Community  and  the  Citizen. 

Dunn. 

Handwork  in  Wood. 

Noyes. 

How  to  Install  Electric  Bells. 

Schneider. 

Story  of  My  Life. 

Keller. 

Winning  Their  Way. 

Faris. 

Heroes  of  Every  Day  Life. 

Coe. 

Some  Successful  Americans. 

Towle. 

Men  of  Business. 

Stoddard. 

Lives  of  Poor  Boys  Who  Became  Famous. 

Bolton. 

The  Young  Forester. 

Grey. 

Oxford  Industrial  Readers. 

Cooke. 

A  Day  with  the  Leather  Workers. 

A  Day  in  an  Iron  Mine. 

A  Visit  to  a  Cotton  Mill. 

A  Day  in  a  Ship  Yard. 

A  Visit  to  a  Coal  Mine. 

A  Visit  to  a  Woolen  Mill. 

Treasure  Island. 

Stevenson. 

The  Little  Shepherd  of  Kingdom  Come. 

John  Fox,  Jr. 

Wild  Animals  I  have  Known. 

Sea  ton. 

Boys  of  Old  Monmouth. 

Tomlinson. 

The  Minute  Boys  of  New  York. 

Otis. 

Left  Behind,  or  Ten  Days  a  Newsboy. 

Otis. 

The  Boy  Sailors  of  1812. 

Tomlinson. 

Wolf,  the  Storm  Leader. 

Caldwell. 

Captain  of  the  Crew. 

Barbour. 

Call  of  the  Wild. 

London. 

Bob,  the  Son  of  Battle. 

Olivant. 

Stories  for  Boys. 

Davis. 

Adventures  Afloat  and  Ashore. 

Birdsall. 

The  Cruise  of  the  Ghost. 

Allen. 

The  Life  Savers. 

Otis. 

A  New  Robinson  Crusoe. 

Alden. 

Lost  in  the  Jungle. 

Chaillu. 

Stories  from  the  Arabian  Nights. 

Eliot. 

157 


Also  books  by  Gulick  and  by  Ritchie  referred  to  on  page  91. 


158  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Magazines 

Popular  Mechanics. 
Illustrated  London  News. 
Harper's  Weekly. 
Youth's  Companion. 
The  Country  Gentleman. 
Geographical  Magazine. 
Child  Labor  Bulletins. 

Bulletin,  August,  1913:  — 

1.  Mr.  Coal's  Story. 

2.  The  Story  of  My  Cotton  Dress. 

3.  The  Story  of  a  Medicine  Bottle. 

Bulletin,  August,  1914:  — 

Little  Comrades  Who  Toil. 


Trade  Material 

The  Saw  in  History.   Henry  Disston  and  Sons,  Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania. 
The  Little  Red  School  House.  Jos.  Dixon  Crucible  Company, 

Jersey  City. 
Apprenticeship  Bulletins.  Boston  School  of  Printing. 
Winnipeg  Business  Men's  Talks. 

Milk  Bulletin.  Chicago  Medical  Society  Milk  Commission. 
Bulletin  on  Food  (no.  21).  Illinois  State  Food  Commission. 
Our  Tubercular  Children  (vol.  i,  no.  10).    Children's  National 

Tuberculosis  Society,  35  South  Dearborn  Street,  Chicago, 

Illinois. 
Educational  Publications  on  the  Care  of  the  Teeth.   Colgate 

&  Co.,  New  York. 
How  to  Run  a  Lathe.   South  Bend  Lathe  Works,  South  Bend, 

Indiana. 
The  Forging  of  an  Auger  Bit.  Greenlee  Bros.  &  Co.,  Rockford, 

Illinois. 
Publications  of  National  Safety  Council,  Chicago,  Illinois. 
Health  and  Safety.  Brown  &  Sharpe  Manufacturing  Company, 

Providence,  Rhode  Island. 
The  Employee  and  Accident  Prevention.  The  Travelers  Insur- 
ance Company. 


ENGLISH  159 

Foremen  and  Accident  Insurance.  The  Travelers  Insurance 
Company. 

Publications  on  Health  and  Hygiene.  Metropolitan  Life  In- 
surance Company. 

File  Filosophy.  Nicholson  File  Company. 

Electrician  and  Mechanic.   Sampson  Publishing  Company. 

Second  in  importance  only  to  the  variety  of  reading 
matter  is  its  accessibility.  The  usual  plan  of  supplying 
"supplementary  readers"  from  the  principal's  office, 
one  for  each  boy,  and  all  alike,  will  not  serve  here. 
Neither  will  it  do  to  try  to  anticipate  the  needs  of  the 
hour  by  having  the  pupils  secure  their  reading  material 
from  the  library  in  advance.  This  will  come  in  time, 
and  rapidly,  but  at  the  outset  the  books  must  be  ready 
at  hand  in  the  room.  Additions  or  substitutions  should 
be  made  from  time  to  time.1 

The  method  of  distributing  the  books  affords  oppor- 
tunity for  still  further  vitalizing  the  work.  It  should 
include  the  freedom  of  selection,  the  right  of  conference 

1  The  following  list  of  prose  selections,  taken  from  The  Riverside 
Readers,  serves  to  show  how  a  set  of  "Readers"  may  be  indexed  by 
the  boys  themselves  for  the  peculiar  interest  and  convenience  of  the 
prevocational  class. 

Riverside  Readers  —  James  H.  Van  Sickle  and  Wilhelmina  Seegmiller 
(Houghton  Mifflin  Company). 

Selection  Reader     Page 

Horace  Greeley,  Journalist.  James  Parton 6th        63 

David  Maydole,  Hammer  Maker.   James  Parton 7th         65 

In  the  Factory.    Henry  Clemmons  Pearson 7th        74 

(Emphasizes  importance  of  education.) 
The  Colonists.  John  Aikin  and  Anna  L.  Barbauld 7th        59 

(Relative  value  to  the  community  of  the  worker 
and  the  "gentleman.") 
The  History  of  Two  Boys.  H.  Irving  Hancock 7th         80 

(Illustrates  two  types  of  character  in  business  life.) 
Readers  and  Reading.  Henry  van  Dyke 8th         35 


160  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

with  the  teacher,  and  the  development  of  a  simple 
library  system. 

Too  much  importance  cannot  be  attached  to  the 
liberty  given  the  pupils  to  select  their  own  reading 
material.  Of  course,  through  conferences  with  the 
teacher,  the  reading  is  guided,  directed,  and  supervised, 
but  the  pupil  still  selects  his  books  from  day  to  day. 
By  this  very  process  he  is  enabled  to  examine,  and 
so  become  somewhat  acquainted  with,  a  much  larger 
number  of  books  than  under  any  other  plan.  He  is  led 
to  appreciate  the  great  variety  of  uses  to  which  the 
printed  page  is  put,  and  so  learns  to  discriminate  in 
his  reading.  If  the  boy  learns  how  to  read  a  newspaper 
he  has  acquired  that  which  will  be  of  considerable  value 
to  him  throughout  his  life. 

An  excellent  device  is  to  have  the  class  work  up  a  card 
catalogue  with  notations  on  each  card  by  the  different 
pupils  who  have  read  the  book.  In  addition  to  this,  a 
slip  fastened  in  the  book  may  contain  the  names  of  the 
pupils  who  have  read  it,  together  with  some  brief  com- 
ment by  each  reader.  Also,  from  time  to  time,  especially 
after  the  course  is  well  under  way,  there  may  be  brief 
reviews  of  certain  publications,  presented  either  orally 
or  in  writing.  By  means  of  these  reviews  and  through 
personal  conferences  will  be  found  ample  opportunity  of 
securing  as  much  reaction  on  the  part  of  the  children 
as  should  be  required  in  this  phase  of  the  course  in  Eng- 
lish. It  must  be  reiterated  that  enjoyment  of  the  read- 
ing process  is  of  infinitely  greater  importance  than  any 
other  feature  in  the  peculiar  problem  with  which  we  are 
dealing.  Where  the  prevocational  work  is  likely  to  cover 
two  br  more  years,  we  believe  that  it  is  profitable 
to  devote  the  first  third  of  the  time  almost  exclusively 


ENGLISH 


161 


to  this  process  of  establishing  friendly  relations  with 
books.1 

It  is  a  matter  of  easy  transition  from  reading  merely 
for  entertainment  to  reading  for  information.  The  daily 
hour  set  aside  for  silent  reading  may  readily  develop 
into  a  period  of  supervised  study.  The  first  essential  of 
such  a  transition  is  cooperation  between  the  teacher 
of  English  and  the  teachers  of  the  other  subjects,  if 
such  subjects  are  taught  depart  mentally. 

This  cooperation  with  the  other  teachers  makes  a 
peculiar  demand  on  the  teacher  of  English  in  a  pre- 
vocational  class.  He  may  be  permitted  to  be  a  specialist 
so  far  as  the  reading  for  entertainment  and  the  reading 
for  aesthetic  appreciation  are  concerned,  and  even  in  the 
realm  of  written  and  oral  expression  he  may  be  allowed 
to  do  some  work  in  English  "for  the  sake  of  English," 
but  he  must  acquire  an  interest  in  the  subject-matter 
of  all  the  other  studies.  In  time  he  should  become  con- 
versant with  the  more  important  literature  used  in  the 
courses  in  history,  civics,  science,  hygiene,  and  shop- 
work.  He  cannot  say,  "  It  is  my  business  to  know  and 
to  teach  English."    It  must  be  his  recognized  duty  to 


1  The  following  table  shows  the  increase  in  the  number  of  books 
read  by  the  Industrial  Class  at  the  University  of  Chicago  where  this 
method  was  employed:  — 

Table  showing  number  of  books  read  by  a  class  of  about  twenty  boys 


October 

November 

December 

January 

February 

March 

April 

10 

22 

24 

54 

74 

59 

40 

Note:  —  December  and  March  were  shortened  by  the  Christmas 
holidays  and  the  spring  recess.  In  April  the  time  allowed  for  reading 
was  shortened  by  two  fifths. 


162  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

teach  the  pupils  how  to  use  English  in  any  department 
of  their  school  work. 

Where  the  same  teacher  is  teaching  history  and  Eng- 
lish, for  example,  there  are  times  when  it  would  be 
difficult  to  say  whether  certain  work  was  being  done  as 
history  or  as  English.  Because  of  the  teacher's  common 
interest,  the  two  subjects  have  been  correlated  natu- 
rally. The  same  kind  of  correlation  should  be  sought 
when  the  work  is  done  by  different  teachers.  Where  the 
reading  material  has  been  listed,  as  in  the  case  of  hy- 
giene and  history  in  this  series,  such  cooperation  is  a 
relatively  simple  matter,  provided  the  entire  work  of 
the  class  has  been  coordinated  by  one  person  and  the 
several  teachers  understand  the  plan  and  the  principles 
involved. 

As  examples  of  such  correlation  the  following  con- 
crete illustrations  are  given. 

The  teacher  of  history  has  discussed  with  the  class 
the  subject  of  the  evolution  of  tools  from  the  crude 
forms  as  used  by  primitive  man  to  the  modern  compli- 
cated machine  tools.  The  hammer  has  been  chosen  as 
an  example  beginning  with  the  crude  stone,  bound  with 
thongs  to  the  end  of  a  stick,  and  ending  with  the  steam 
and  pneumatic  hammers.  The  time  which  can  be  ap- 
propriately devoted  to  this  phase  of  history  has  been 
consumed,  but  the  teacher  of  English  may  well  utilize 
the  interest  which  the  boys  now  have  in  this  subject  by 
giving  them  such  reading  matter  as  The  Saw  in  History. 

Or  let  us  suppose  that  the  teacher  of  physiology  has 
told  briefly,  in  a  lesson  on  anatomy,  the  story  of  Atlas 
in  connection  with  the  mention  of  the  second  vertebra, 
or  has  referred,  in  a  discussion  on  the  muscles,  to  the 
tendon  of  Achilles.    Experience  has  shown  that  even 


ENGLISH  163 

this  slight  introduction  has  served  amply  to  open  the 
way  for  the  teacher  of  English  to  present  Hawthorne's 
charming  tales  from  the  Greek  myths  or  to  lead  delight- 
ful excursions  into  the  classic  realm  of  the  heroes  of 
Greece  and  Troy. 

The  shop  also  suggests  subjects  for  work  in  English. 
While  any  intensive  study  of  the  larger  industries  be- 
longs in  the  main  to  the  department  of  history,  still 
there  are  many  related  social  and  industrial  questions 
of  which  the  English  department  must  take  account. 
By  cooperating  with  the  teachers  of  shopwork  and  his- 
tory, the  English  department  will  find  ample  material 
relating  to  such  subjects,  for  example,  as  the  production 
of  iron,  steel,  coal,  and  lumber. 

In  addition  to  utilizing  the  reading  material  in  other 
subjects  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the  pupils  how  to 
read  for  information,  some  special  talks  may  be  given 
to  show  the  children  something  of  the  utility  of  books 
in  general,  and  of  the  extent  to  which  they  enter  into  the 
practical  work  of  the  civilized  world.  Things  that  are 
matters  of  such  common  knowledge  to  us  as  to  seem 
obvious  are  frequently  overlooked  by  them.  We  com- 
prehend, for  example,  that  books  serve  a  great  variety 
of  purposes  and  that  there  are  few  problems  presented 
by  life  to  the  solution  of  which  the  printed  page  may 
not  have  something  to  contribute.  How  may  the  pupils 
be  led  to  a  similar  appreciation? 

Children  are  almost  always  interested  in  hearing 
about  the  history  of  iron  and  steel,  and  of  the  workings 
of  the  great  factories  in  which  such  material  is  made 
into  products  for  the  market.  Such  recitals  as  these 
are  thought  to  be  especially  appropriate  for  prevoca- 
tional  classes,  yet  it  is  an  open  question  whether  they 


164  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

are  more  appropriate  or  more  interesting  or  more  val- 
uable to  the  average  prevocational  child  than  would  be 
the  history  of  books  and  a  description  of  the  workings 
of  some  large  public  library.  The  library  is,  in  fact,  a 
huge  machine,  and  the  librarian  and  his  assistants  know 
how  to  operate  it.  To  them  the  library  is  not  the  awe- 
inspiring  and  incomprehensible  thing  that  it  is  to  the 
average  child.  The  children  would  not  feel  so  helpless 
in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  volumes  if  they  knew 
something  of  the  principles  of  classification  and  cata- 
loguing. They  should  learn  how  an  assistant  librarian 
can  pick  out,  from  the  mass  of  reading,  the  little  piece 
of  information  for  which  the  reader  happens  to  be 
searching. 

By  merely  naming,  or  by  informally  discussing,  just 
a  few  of  the  classifications,  the  teacher  can  open  new 
worlds  to  some  of  the  children.  Take,  for  example,  the 
following  as  illustrative  and  think  what  any  teacher 
may  tell  the  children  that  will  prove  both  interesting 
and  instructive  and  that  may  result  in  exciting  a  curios- 
ity about  books :  — 

Classification 

Fiction.  Travel.  Civics.  Engineering. 

Biography.        Art.  Politics  Mechanics. 

History.  The  drama.         Science.         Encyclopaedias. 

A  few  facts  about  some  of  the  world's  great  libraries; 
the  knowledge  that  ancient  libraries  were  only  for  the 
great  and  powerful  and  could  be  used  only  by  great 
scholars;  a  brief  statement  of  the  development  of  the 
American  plan  of  free,  municipal,  circulating  public 
libraries,  —  these  and  other  similar  topics  are  quite 
as  interesting  and  quite  as  appropriate  for  industrial 


ENGLISH  165 

classes  as  the  story  of  iron  and  steel,  and  it  is  believed 
that  some  acquaintance  with  such  facts  will  convince 
the  children  that  books  are  indeed  useful  and  valuable 
things. 

It  will  also  be  of  interest  and  somewhat  of  a  surprise 
to  many  children  to  learn  that  some  manufacturing 
concerns  maintain  libraries  of  their  own  and  employ  a 
librarian.  At  first  thought  there  may  seem  to  be  little 
connection  between  a  factory  and  a  library,  but  a  little 
reflection  will  show  the  boys  that  modern  industry 
makes  so  many  demands  on  science,  art,  and  mechanics, 
and  on  other  related  or  contributing  industries,  that  it 
is  desirable  to  have  all  the  educational  material  possible 
ready  at  hand  for  both  employer  and  employees. 

Any  teacher  who  has  the  right  point  of  view  can  find 
countless  opportunities  for  bringing  to  the  attention  of 
the  children  the  great  utility  of  books. 

While  the  development  of  verbal  expression,  both  oral 
and  written,  is  a  legitimate  purpose  of  prevocational 
English,  it  should  be  admitted  that  this  is  of  far  less 
importance  than  the  quickening  of  the  pupil's  powers 
of  acquisition.  It  should  also  be  said  that,  of  the  two, 
oral  expression  is  of  far  more  value  to  these  boys  than 
written  composition. 

While  of  secondary  importance,  the  development  of 
ready,  accurate  verbal  expression  should  not  be  over- 
looked entirely.  Some  instruction,  therefore,  must  be 
given  in  penmanship,  composition,  and  spelling,  and 
possibly  in  reading  aloud  for  intonation  and  expression, 
but  the  prevocational  teacher  must  not  fail  to  see  this 
work  in  its  proper  perspective.  There  is  nothing  more 
disheartening  than  to  see  a  teacher  of  prevocational 
boys  proceeding  in  his  instruction  with  the  same  undue 


166  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

emphasis  on  the  unessentials  that  resulted  so  disas- 
trously with  these  very  children  while  they  were  in  the 
grades.  Undoubtedly  it  would  be  better  to  eliminate 
this  whole  phase  of  English,  for  these  boys,  than  to  over- 
emphasize it  at  the  expense  of  the  reading  for  enter- 
tainment, for  information,  and  for  inspiration. 

Little  formal  instruction  should  be  given  in  penman- 
ship in  the  pre  vocational  class.  The  personal  criticism 
of  all  written  work,  together  with  occasional  study  of 
excellent  examples  of  penmanship,  should  result  in  any 
needed  improvement  in  the  formation  of  letters. 

An  incentive  for  a  little  exceptionally  good  or  careful 
writing  may  be  provided  in  various  ways.  One  such 
expedient  is  to  have  each  boy  keep  a  "Rule  Book,'*  in 
which  is  written,  from  time  to  time,  directions,  sug- 
gestions for  work,  or  other  matters  which  the  teacher 
wishes  to  have  in  the  boys'  hands  for  immediate  refer- 
ence; such,  for  example,  as  rules  for  self-management 
in  school,  and  rules  for  sanitation  and  hygiene  in  school 
or  home.  Some  of  the  notebook  work,  the  copying  of 
poems  and  of  selected  prose  extracts,  and  the  work 
on  the  card  index  previously  mentioned  may  be  cited 
as  means  of  securing  improvement  in  penmanship. 

The  time  available  is  too  limited  to  permit  of  develop- 
ing spelling  as  a  subject.  Undoubtedly  individual  atten- 
tion should  be  given  to  desperately  bad  cases  in  order 
to  discover  if  there  is  some  special  cause  for  this  condi- 
tion which  can  be  corrected  readily.  Such  cases  have 
been  discovered  and  materially  improved.  Here,  also, 
the  most  appropriate  method  is  that  of  personal  crit- 
icism and  suggestion.  Spelling  lessons  should  prefer- 
ably be  informal  and  should  rarely  include  spelling 
aloud.  Word  study  which  can  be  made  picturesque  or 


ENGLISH 


167 


dramatic,  and  which  can  be  introduced  informally,  will 
serve  the  double  purpose  of  improving  the  spelling  and 
of  providing  another  opportunity  for  the  development 
of  oral  expression.  As  an  example  of  words  which  may 
be  studied  in  this  way  the  following  are  suggested:  — 


good-by  — 
dahlia  — 
macadamize 

boycott  — 
derrick  — 

thimble  — 
alphabet  — 
school  — 
sarcasm  — 
nausea  — 
aviation  — 
dexterous  — 
sinister  — 


tantalize  — 
rival  — 


tariff  — 


Contraction  of  "God  be  with  you." 

From  name  of  Swedish  botanist,  Dahl.     ' 

From  name  of  Scottish  engineer,  John  Louden 
MacAdam. 

From  name  of  first  victim  of  that  system. 

From  name  of  London  hangman  of  seventeenth 
century. 

From  Anglo-Saxon,  thuma,  "thumb." 

From  Greek,  alpha  and  beta. 

From  Greek,  schole,  "leisure." 

From  Greek,  sarx,  "flesh." 

From  Greek,  naus,  "ship." 

From  Latin,  avis,  "bird." 

From  Latin,  dexter,  "right." 

From  Latin,  sinister,  "left,"  as  opposed  to 
dexter,  "right";  whence  the  meaning  "ill- 
omened,"  "bad." 

From  the  Latin  myth  of  Tantalus. 

From  Latin,  rivales,  "near  neighbors";  rivus, 
"river";  and  so  the  struggles  among  people 
for  habitation  on  river  banks  developed  the 
word  "rival." 

From  the  Spanish  promontory,  Tarifa,  once 
inhabited  by  Moors. 


Other  expedients  found  useful  are :  — 

Dictation  with  immediate  correction  of  misspelled 
words  in  class,  corrections  being  made  by  the  boys 
themselves.  They  may  report  on  their  improvement 
from  day  to  day,  not  on  the  percentage  of  failures. 

Study  of  list  of  words  collected  from  shop  and  other 
classes  by  the  boys. 


168  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Occasional  reference  to  published  lists,  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  that  compiled  for  the  vocational  class  of  Swift 
and  Company,  Chicago,  familiarly  known  as  the 
"Swift  Speller." 

Dictionary  work,  conducted  in  school  time  as  a  class 
exercise,  is  valuable. 

It,  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  good  reason  why  oral 
reading  should  ever  be  given  as  a  class  exercise  in  a  pre- 
vocational  school,  but  the  practice  is  so  common  that 
some  consideration  must  be  given  to  the  question. 

Experience  would  go  to  show  that  it  is  worse  than  a 
waste  of  time  to  have  the  members  of  a  class  sit  and 
listen  to  desperately  bad  readers  struggling  painfully 
through  sentence  after  sentence,  the  import  of  which  is 
already  a  matter  of  common  class  knowledge,  since  the 
book  is  under  the  eyes  of  all.  If  the  oral  reading  were 
of  excellent  quality,  something  might  be  learned  by 
imitation,  but  as  it  is  the  listener  acquires  little  or 
nothing  but  distaste  for  the  whole  proceeding,  and  the 
reader  is  in  even  a  worse  plight,  since  he  is  keenly  con- 
scious of  his  failure  to  entertain  or  enlighten  either  him- 
self or  his  listeners.  Whatever  may  be  the  teacher's 
purpose  for  such  practice,  it  is  impossible  to  discover 
any  actual  accomplishment  which  can  be  called  worthy. 
Oral  reading  may  serve  an  excellent  purpose  in  pre- 
vocational  education,  but  that  phase  of  English  will  be 
discussed  in  another  place. 

Technical  grammar  has  no  place  in  prevocational 
work  excepting  in  its  most  elementary  form.  The  ability 
to  recognize  in  a  sentence  a  noun,  a  verb,  an  adjective, 
or  an  adverb,  the  subject  or  the  predicate,  is  about  as 
far  as  grammar  should  be  carried  as  a  subject.  Even 
this  attempt  at  sentence  analysis  should  be  discontinued 


ENGLISH  169 

unless  there  is  unmistakable  evidence  that  the  interest 
is  genuine,  and  that  the  work  actually  contributes  to 
the  pupils'  ability  to  express  themselves  more  clearly 
and  concisely. 

It  must  not  be  assumed,  because  prevocational  pupils 
are  backward  in  school,  that  they  are  lacking  in  the 
capacity  for  aesthetic  enjoyment.  There  is  frequently  a 
hunger  in  the  hearts  of  these  children  which  none  of  the 
so-called  practical  work  can  satisfy.  English  offers  an 
opportunity  to  minister  to  this  need,  and  perhaps  oral 
reading  will  afford  the  best  approach.  This  reading, 
however,  should  be  done  mainly  by  the  teacher  or  by 
excellent  readers  drawn  from  other  departments  of  the 
school. 

The  ability  to  listen  with  pleasure  to  good  reading  is 
almost  universal.  Most  adults  have  vivid  recollections 
of  things  read  to  them  in  childhood,  frequently  with  no 
intention  that  they  should  be  retained,  but  which  have 
been  of  lasting  inspiration  and  benefit  to  them.  Or- 
dinarily the  teacher,  under  the  stress  of  required  work, 
does  not  feel  at  liberty  to  take  the  time  for  giving  to 
the  children  a  series  of  these  pleasurable  recollections. 
In  the  prevocational  class  in  English  this  should  be  an 
important  part  of  the  regular  program. 

In  addition  to  listening  to  oral  reading,  the  pupils 
should  read  for  themselves,  should  copy  in  their  note- 
books, and  occasionally  should  commit  to  memory, 
examples  of  good  literature.  While  some  of  the  longer 
literary  works  may  come  within  the  capacity  of  an  occa- 
sional pupil,  for  the  large  majority  short  extracts  and 
adaptations  from  these  works,  and  quotations  from  both 
prose  and  poetry,  will  be  found  preferable.  These  may 
well  be  selected  to  engender  a  respect  for  labor.  It  can- 


170  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

not  be  denied  that  literature  has  sung  mainly  the  praises 
of  the  great  and  powerful,  but  tributes  to  the  humbler 
workers  are  not  wanting.  The  teacher  who  searches 
sympathetically  will  find  ample  material.  As  illustra- 
tive of  this  material  and  as  indicative  of  variety,  the 
following  quotations  are  selected  from  a  mass  of  such 
examples  employed  in  prevocational  classes :  — 

No  man  is  born  into  the  world  whose  work 

Is  not  born  with  him;  there  is  always  work, 

And  tools  to  work  withal,  for  those  who  will, 

And  blessed  are  the  horny  hands  of  toil ! 

The  busy  world  shoves  angrily  aside 

The  man  who  stands  with  arms  akimbo  set, 

Until  occasion  tells  him  what  to  do: 

And  he  who  waits  to  have  his  tasks  mapped  out 

Shall  die  and  leave  his  errand  unfulfilled.        Lowell. 

All  Work 

All  true  work  is  sacred;  for  in  all  true  work,  were  it  but 
true  hand-labor,  there  is  something  of  divineness.  Labor, 
wide  as  the  earth,  has  its  summit  in  heaven.  Carlyle. 

The  Prize  of  Life 

Genial  manners  are  good,  and  power  of  accommodation  to 
any  circumstance,  but  the  high  prize  of  life,  the  crowning  for- 
tune of  a  man  is  to  be  with  a  bias  to  some  pursuit,  which  finds 
him  in  employment  and  happiness  —  whether  it  be  to  make 
baskets,  or  broadswords,  or  canals,  or  statutes,  or  songs. 

Emerson. 

The  Worker 

The  world  is  at  its  best.  I  feel 

A  triumph  in  the  work  I  do. 
With  every  turning  of  the  wheel 

I  add  a  little  that  is  new. 


ENGLISH  171 

The  masses  shapeless  through  the  past, 

I,  even  I,  give  shape.   I  bring 
From  silent  uselessness  at  last 

The  pleasing  useful  thing. 

All  that  has  been  since  the  first  light 

Shot  out  across  the  gulfs  of  space, 
Was  that  my  crowning  labor  might 

Put  something  in  its  ordered  place. 
The  sound  the  toiling  thousands  make 

Is  earth's  sublimest  symphony, 
And  I,  a  worker,  proudly  take 

The  part  assigned  to  me.  Kiser. 

Music  of  Labor 

The  banging  of  the  hammer, 

The  whirling  of  the  plane, 
The  crashing  of  the  busy  saw, 

The  creaking  of  the  crane, 
The  ringing  of  the  anvil, 

The  grating  of  the  drill, 
The  clattering  of  the  turning  lathe, 

The  whirling  of  the  mill, 
The  buzzing  of  the  spindle, 

The  rattling  of  the  loom, 
The  puffing  of  the  engine, 

The  fan's  continual  boom, 
The  clipping  of  the  tailor's  shears, 

The  driving  of  the  awl  — 
These  sounds  of  honest  industry 

I  love  —  I  love  them  all.  Anonymous. 

Always 
Honest  labor  bears  a  lovely  face.         Dekker. 

A  Man* s  Work 

In  the  morning  when  thou  art  sluggish  to  rouse  thee,  let 
this  thought  be  present:  "I  am  rising  to  a  man's  work." 

Marcus  Aurelius. 


172  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  work  in  English,  even  in 
prevocational  classes,  offers  wide  opportunity  for  the 
presentation  of  much  that  is  inspirational.  It  will  be  a 
sorry  day  for  education  if  the  schools  admit  that  in- 
spirational literature  is  mainly  for  the  few  and  that  the 
only  training  needed  by  the  workers  is  in  the  so-called 
practical  phases  of  industrial  education.  Rather  should 
such  literature  be  brought  to  light  as  will  help  to  raise 
humble  work  out  of  its  commonly  sordid  and  unpoetic 
relations  and  touch  it  with  the  magic  of  idealism. 


CHAPTER  XI 

MATHEMATICS 

It  is  obvious  that  mathematics  must  be  included  in 
the  subjects  of  instruction  for  prevocational  pupils  and 
that  the  work  must  be  selected  with  due  reference  to 
their  peculiar  needs.  With  few  exceptions,  such  pupils, 
when  they  enter  the  prevocational  class,  are  decidedly 
deficient  in  arithmetic,  being  far  behind  children  of  the 
same  age  who  have  maintained  the  normal  rate  of  prog- 
ress in  the  schools.  They  are  remarkably  slow  and  ex- 
tremely inaccurate  in  all  mathematical  calculations; 
they  lack  the  ability  to  understand  problem  statement, 
analysis,  and  solution;  they  are  uninterested  in  the  sub- 
ject and  are  unconvinced  of  its  importance.  To  make 
good  these  deficiencies  and  to  change  these  attitudes, 
the  course  planned  for  prevocational  pupils  must  pro- 
vide some  real  incentive  to  drill  in  the  fundamental 
operations,  and  it  must  give  convincing  proof  of  the 
utility  of  the  subject  by  affording  ample  opportunity 
for  the  pupils  to  apply  their  mathematical  knowledge. 
The  subject  will  be  discussed,  therefore,  under  these  two 
general  subdivisions,  drill  and  utility.  It  must  be  obvi- 
ous that  these  are  not  absolutely  distinct  phases  of  the 
problem  of  mathematics,  and  that  in  practice  they  will 
react  upon  each  other  and  will  progress  together,  but 
they  can  be  discussed  more  clearly  if  considered  sep- 
arately. 

The  pupil  who  makes  the  normal  progress  in  school 


174  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

has  had  the  necessary  drill  in  the  fundamental  opera- 
tions before  reaching  the  difficult  and  critical  age  of 
adolescence.  To  demand  drill  of  the  prevocational  pupil 
and  to  expect  unquestioning  and  unresenting  acquies- 
cence to  it  is  to  invite  still  further  failure.  Yet  it  is  fruit- 
less to  attempt  mathematical  instruction  without  such 
drill.  A  device  which  has  been  found  measurably  suc- 
cessful in  securing  this  necessary  drill  in  a  prevocational 
class  is  here  described. 

Without  special  reference  to  arithmetic  the  fact  is 
scientifically  developed  that  practice  increases  efficiency. 
The  plan  is  then  explained  to  the  pupils  whereby  each 
one  can  prove  the  truth  of  this  fact  by  his  own  experi- 
ence extending  over  a  few  weeks  and  consuming  not 
more  than  five  minutes  a  day.  It  is  shown  that  each  boy 
can  make  this  investigation  by  testing  himself  and  can 
determine  his  relative  increase  in  efficiency  by  compar- 
ing himself  with  others. 

Drill  tables  are  prepared  involving  the  addition  of 
fractions.  It  is  preferable  to  drill  in  addition  of  fractions 
rather  than  whole  numbers  for  several  reasons.  First, 
addition  of  whole  numbers  seems  too  simple  to  a  boy 
of  this  age,  even  though  he  is  extremely  deficient  in  it, 
in  both  speed  and  accuracy;  second,  the  addition  of  long 
columns  does  not  provide  sufficient  variety  to  excite  ac- 
tive interest;  and  third,  it  is  easier  to  convince  boys  that 
they  do  not  know  how  to  handle  fractions  than  it  is  to 
prove  to  them  that  they  cannot  add  whole  numbers,  and 
it  is  more  easily  shown  that  this  deficiency  is  a  handicap 
in  their  work. 

About  twenty  problems,  involving  fractions,  are  pre- 
sented as  a  class  exercise  in  arithmetic.  The  results 
convince  the  pupils  that  some  special  attention  should 


MATHEMATICS  175 

be  given  to  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  and 
division  of  fractions.  These  problems  are  such  as  the 
boy  meets  in  drawing  to  scale,  involving  the  division  of 
ascertained  dimensions  by  one  half,  one  fourth,  or  one 
eighth;  or  in  figuring  the  over-all  length  of  a  piece  of 
work  from  the  intermediate  dimensions;  or  in  making 
out  simple  bills  of  stock  for  various  shop  jobs. 

At  first  the  entire  arithmetic  period  is  devoted  to  the 
explanation  of  principles  and  demonstration  of  their 
application,  but  after  a  few  days  the  work  on  drill  tables 
is  taken  up  at  the  beginning  of  each  lesson  for  the  first 
five  minutes  only.  Examples  of  tables  actually  used  in 
a  prevocational  class  follow  (pp.  176-179). 

Five  or  six  tables  for  each  process  will  be  enough  to 
provide  such  variety  of  arrangement  that  answers  can- 
not be  memorized.  The  second  table  on  subtraction 
illustrates  this  variety.  If  the  order  in  which  the  tables 
are  given  out  day  after  day  is  varied,  this  number  of 
tables  will  provide  sufficient  work  for  five-minute  exer- 
cise periods  through  several  months. 

The  number  of  problems  on  a  sheet  should  be  a 
matter  of  experimentation,  as  many  being  given  as 
a  class  will  work  out  with  reasonable  energy.  The  work 
should  not  extend  over  a  period  long  enough  to  re- 
duce the  intensity  with  which  the  pupils  apply  them- 
selves. 

The  manner  of  using  the  table  is  obvious,  but  a  word 
may  be  added  regarding  the  plan  of  checking  up  and 
utilizing  the  results  from  day  to  day. 

Accuracy  and  speed  are  both  considered.  To  arrive 
at  a  significant  numerical  statement  of  the  result,  the 
number  of  correct  answers  is  divided  by  the  number  of 
seconds  allowed,  and,  to  produce  a  whole  number,  the 


176 


PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


To  the  class:  Make  as  many  of  the  Additions  as  you  can  in 
the  time  allowed.  Please  stop  your  work  as  soon  as  the  teacher 
calls  "Time  up." 


M- 

1  +  1  = 
2^8 

1+1= 
2^16 

1+1= 
2     82 

1  +  1= 
2T64 

M- 

i+^  = 
4^16 

1+1= 
4^32 

1+1= 
4^64 

±+^-= 

8     16 

2+1= 

4^16 

2+1  = 
4^32 

2+1= 
4^64 

3+1= 

8^64 

7     17 
16+32 

1+1= 

16^64 

5+H= 

8^32 

5+1= 

4T32 

1+1= 
16T32 

1  +  1  = 

1      1 

4  +  5 

S+J- 

W- 

3-4= 

2  +  1  = 

8^3 

5  +  ?  = 

!+»- 

M= 

2+1= 

8+ll 

2+1= 

4^6 

*+i  = 
9^6 

2  +  2  = 

l+i  = 

12^9 

1+1= 
12^8 

Pupil's  Name 

Date  

Time  

No.  Correct  . 


MATHEMATICS 


177 


To  the  class:  Make  as  many  of  the  Subtractions  as  you 
can  in  the  time  allowed.  Please  stop  your  work  as  soon  as 
the  teacher  calls  "Time  up." 


1    1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2      4 

2 

8 

2 

16 

2 

32 

2 

64 

3      1 

8      4 

5 
16" 

1 
"4 

1 
4" 

7 
32 

19 
64" 

1 

4~ 

7 
16" 

1 

"8 

3      1 

3 

5 

3 

3 

3 

5 

5 

7 

4     16 

4" 

32 

4 

64 

8 

"16~ 

8 

64 

17     7 
32    16 

9 
16" 

9 

"64"" 

5 

8~ 

11 
"32 

3 

4" 

9 
'32 

3 
16" 

5 
"32~ 

1      1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2      3 

4 

5 

5 

6 

4 

9 

3 

'4~ 

3      1 
8      3 

3 
5~ 

3 
'9 

4 

7" 

3 

~7~~ 

3 

4 

2 
"9~ 

3 

8  " 

3 
"ll 

3  1 

4  6~ 

4 
6 

2 

"9 

3 
6" 

3 

"8~ 

4 
9 

5 

"12 

5 
12" 

3 

'8 

Pupil's  Name , 

Date  

Time  

No.  Correct  . 


178 


PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


To  the  class:  Make  as  many  of  the  Subtractions  as  you 
can  in  the  time  allowed.  Reduce  answers  to  lowest  terms. 
Please  stop  your  work  as  soon  as  the  teacher  calls  "Time 
up." 


1  1 

2   4== 

3  1 

4  16 

1   1 
5   6 

19  1 
64  4 

1   1 
8   4 

1  1 

2  64 

8   8 

8  11 

7   1 
16  8 

8   5 
4  82 

1  1 

2  32 

5   8 

12  8  = 

1  8 

2  8~ 

1   7 
4  82 

8   1 

8   4 

19  7 
32  16 

5   1 
16  4 

2  16 

8   8 

2   8~ 

8  16 

3  1 

4  6 

4   8 

7   7 

1   1 

4   9 

9   9 

16  64 

8   2 

4   9 

4   2 
6   9~~ 

8   8 

4  64 

5   7 

8  64 

4   5 
9  12 

8   9 

4  32 

5  11 
8  82 

1   1 

4   5 

8   5^ 
16  82^ 

8   8 

6   8 

8   2 
5   9 

Pupil's  Name 

Date  

Time  

No.  Correct  . 


MATHEMATICS 


179 


To  the  class:  Make  as  many  of  the  Divisions  as  you  can 
in  the  time  allowed.  Reduce  answers  to  lowest  terms.  Re- 
duce improper  fractions  to  mixed  numbers.  Please  stop  your. 
work  as  soon  as  the  teacher  calls  "Time  up." 


1  .  1 

2  :  4 

3  .  1 

4  :  16" 

1      1 
5  :  6" 

1      1 
5  :  4" 

9      9 
64  :  16" 

3  2 

4  :  9" 

3      3 

8  :11~ 

1  .  1 

2  :64~ 

5  #  3 

12  :  8" 

1  .  1 

2  :32~ 

17.  7 
32  :  16" 

7  .  1 
32  :  4 

19  .  1 
64  :  4" 

1      1 
3  :  4" 

1  .  1 
3  :  2" 

1  1 

2  :  8~ 

3  3 

4  :64~ 

7  .  7 

8  :  32" 

3  .  1 

8  :  3" 

3  9 

4  :32" 

3      3 
5  '  4" 

11.  3_ 

3      2 
5  :  9" 

9  #  8 

16  :  64 

9      9 

16  :  64" 

}♦.- 

4      2 
6~*~9" 

21    13 
32:16~ 

3  ,  3 
5  :20~ 

{*«- 

4      2 

7  :  7" 

5      3 

48:  8" 

1      1 
4  :  9~ 

7  7 

8  :  12" 

4      3 

Pupil's  Name 

Date  

Time  

No.  Correct  . 


180  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

quotient  is  multiplied  by  100.  Each  boy  notes  from  day 
to  day  what  his  improvement,  if  any,  actually  is.  In  a 
class  with  which  this  plan  was  used,  there  was  only  one 
boy  who  made  no  progress;  the  boy  who  improved  most 
increased  from  9  to  20.  The  class  average  in  this  instance 
was  computed  at  stated  intervals  and  increased  regu- 
larly as  follows:  6.6;  7.0;  7.0;  7.15;  7.95;  8.8;  8.91;  9.4; 
10.2;  10.9. 

It  has  been  said  that  Francis  Bacon's  greatest  con- 
tribution to  education  was  made  through  his  insistence 
on  the  utility  of  science.    To  the  layman  it  may  seem 
strange  that  either  science  or  mathematics,  often  called 
the  two  most  practical  subjects,  should  ever  have  been 
esteemed  for  any  other  reason,  and  yet  it  is  clear  that, 
in  the  educational  world,  both  science  and  mathematics 
are,  by  many,  considered  valuable  school  subjects  for 
their  disciplinary  value  quite  apart  from  their  utility 
content.    While  much  thought  has  been  given  to  this 
matter  in  recent  years  for  the  purpose  of  making  arith- 
metic more  immediately  practical,  and  while  as  a  result 
modern  textbooks  on  the  subject  teem  with  supposedly 
concrete  and  useful  problems,  each  of  these  concrete 
problems  is  too  often  the  thin  disguise  of  a  principle, 
which,  according  to  tradition,  must  be  presented  at  its 
particular  place  in  the  course.  With  a  few  exceptions  all 
textbooks  present  these  principles  in  roughly  the  same 
order,  so  that,  whatever  series  is  used,  the  sixth  grade 
will  be  found  working  on  operations  with  advanced  com- 
mon and  decimal  fractions  and  denominate  numbers, 
and  the  seventh  grade  on  percentage  and  all  its  ramifi- 
cations through  profit  and  loss,  commercial  discount, 
commission,    interest,    insurance,    taxes,    stocks    and 
bonds,  and  what  not,  —  and  all  of  the  time  with  an  eye 


MATHEMATICS  181 

almost  single  to  the  development  of  principles  and  with 
but  slight  attention  to  genuinely  practical  applications 
and  actual  utility.  In  the  words  of  the  preface  to  a  new 
series  of  arithmetics:  * 

Although  the  doctrine  of  mental  discipline  has  professedly 
been  abandoned  by  all  enlightened  teachers,  our  textbooks 
have  not  yet  loosened  the  shackles  of  this  formalistic  view  of 
the  subject.  The  teaching  of  antiquated  arithmetical  proc- 
esses has  persisted  in  them,  despite  the  fact  that  insufficient 
attention  has  been  given  to  practice  in  the  essential  processes 
and  that  there  is  an  increasing  number  of  modern  practical 
applications  demanding  attention. 

The  usual  textbooks  vary; 2  but,  in  general,  reliance  is 
placed  on  systematic  instruction,  providing  for  progres- 
sive steps  in  mathematical  reasoning  with  the  hope  — 
as  tested  by  results,  a  forlorn  one  —  that  the  principles 
will  be  applied  readily  to  any  problem  arising  in  actual 
experience.  In  a  course  planned  for  pre  vocational 
pupils  it  will  be  found  much  better  to  present  problems 
that  will  teach  the  principle  and  its  application  at  the 
same  time. 

1  Everyday  Arithmetic.  Hoyt  and  Peet.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company. 

2  Recently  a  number  of  texts  have  appeared  in  which  the  pre- 
sentation of  mathematics  has  departed  more  or  less  from  the  tradi- 
tional lines.  They  are  supposed  to  be  "vocational."  While  inadequate 
as  texts,  so  far  as  general  industrial  schools  or  prevocational  classes 
are  concerned,  they  offer  extremely  suggestive  material  for  the 
teachers.   Among  others  the  following  may  be  noted:  — 

Vocational  Mathematics.  William  H.  Dooley.  D.  C.  Heath  and 
Company. 

Vocational  Arithmetic.  H.  D.  Vincent.  Houghton  Mifflin  Com- 
pany. 

Vocational  Algebra.    Wentworth  and  Smith.    Ginn  and  Company. 

Ludlow  Textile  Arithmetic.  Eaton  and  Brady.  Ludlow  Manufac- 
turing Associates,  Ludlow,  Massachusetts. 

Applied  Arithmetic.  E.  E.  Sheldon.  R.  R.  Donnelley  &  Sons,  Chi- 
cago, Illinois. 


182  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

For  example,  the  standing  of  the  pupils  in  the  school, 
their  progress  from  day  to  day,  their  attendance,  and 
many  other  matters  of  record  may  be  reduced  to  "aver- 
ages'* and  the  pupils  can  compute  these  averages.  Find- 
ing the  average  efficiency  of  the  class  for  any  given 
period  and  the  comparison  of  this  with  later  records 
affords  not  only  good  arithmetical  computation  for 
boys  just  entering  the  prevocational  class,  but  it  also 
furnishes  one  of  the  best  incentives  to  progress. 

The  finding  of  averages  leads  easily  to  the  computa- 
tion of  percentages  for  purposes  of  record,  and,  the  meth- 
od and  principle  having  been  practically  demonstrated 
and  actually  used,  and  the  willingness  to  submit  to  a 
limited  amount  of  drill  having  been  established,  the  way 
is  plain  to  a  sufficient  amount  of  practice  and  a  suffi- 
ciently varied  application  of  the  principle  involved  to 
teach  all  the  percentage  which  these  boys  will  need  for 
some  time  to  come. 

The  problems  suggested  on  page  183,  taken  from 
the  work  of  a  prevocational  class,  are  illustrative.  An 
attendance  table  was  prepared  showing  hours  of  ab- 
sence of  each  pupil  in  the  class  each  month.  The  ques- 
tions were  based  on  this  table. 

If  they  are  to  be  taught  at  all,  even  such  abstract  and 
forbidding  topics  as  the  "Greatest  Common  Divisor" 
and  the  "Least  Common  Multiple"  may  be  approached 
in  this  practical,  concrete  way,  as  is  shown  by  the  teach- 
ing in  a  prevocational  class  in  which  printing  was  the 
trade  subject.  As  an  approach  to  the  subject  of  the 
greatest  common  divisor,  the  boys  were  given  such  prob- 
lems as  the  following:  "In  the  bindery  is  scrap  paper 
12  in.,  18  in.,  and  24  in.  long,  the  width  being  uniformly 
3  in.   What  is  the  longest  pad  that  can  be  cut  from  this 


MATHEMATICS 


183 


Attendance  table  showing  hours  of  absence  of  each  pupil  each 
month 


Month 
No.  of  Days 

Pupil  — 

E.  B 

C.B 

S.  B 

C.B 

F.D 

A.D 

H.  H.... 
W.  H.... 

A.K 

W.  L.... 

CM 

O.M 

G.M 

W.  M.... 

J.   P 

P.  P 

H.  S 

P.S 

L.  T 

A.  T 

R  W.... 
K.Y 


Oct. 


15 


0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

12 
0 

12 
6 
7 

17 
0 
0 
7 
3 
3 

12 

58 
0 
2 


Nov.        Dec 


19 


13 

0 

10 

0 

1 

19 

0 

22 

21 

28 

6 

7 

3 

1 

11 
2 
11 
53 
16 
24 


17 


12 

16 

11 

0 

0 

6 

0 

10 

0 

6 

19 

11 

10 

11 

0 

0 

8 

0 

6 

12 
11 
11 


Jan. 


20 


11 

0 
5 
1 
1 

11 

0 

4 

5 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

7 

20 

29 

16 

7 

12 


Feb.       March       Total 


18 


14 

30 
6 
6 
6 

19 
0 
3 
9 
0 

11 
5 
0 
0 
9 
0 

10 

12 
5 

16 


0 

10 

28 
3 
2 

19 
8 

15 
0 
9 
5 

22 
1 
0 
1 
0 

27 
0 
8 

25 
3 

15 


Questions 

1.  Find  who  was  absent  the  greatest  number  of  hours. 

2.  Who  was  absent  the  least  number  of  hours? 

8.  Which  month  had  the  fewest  hours  of  absence? 

4.  Find  the  average  number  of  absences  per  month  of  each  boy. 

5.  Which  month  had  the  best  attendance? 

6.  Find  the  percentage  of  attendance  during  each  month  and  plot  a 
curve  for  the  year  to  date. 

7.  Let  each  boy  plot  a  curve  of  his  own  percentage  of  absence. 


184  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

paper  without  waste?  "  The  least  common  multiple  was 
exemplified  thus :  "  Test  the  accuracy  of  your  composing- 
stick  by  usiug  em  quads  of  10-point,  12-point,  and 
18-point  type.  To  what  measure  should  the  stick  be 
set?" 

Another  application  of  the  principle  of  utility  is  to 
be  found  in  correlating  the  mathematics  definitely 
with  some  of  the  science  work  and  especially  with  the 
shopwork  and  drawing.  All  of  these  will  call  naturally 
for  some  mathematics  and,  with  the  cooperation  of  the 
teachers,  such  work  can  be  carried  out  extensively. 
Attention  must  be  drawn  to  the  fact  that  so-called 
"shop  problems"  cannot  be  relied  upon  as  the  sole 
source  of  all  the  arithmetic  in  the  prevocational  course. 
Much  has  been  said  in  late  years  regarding  the  desir- 
ability of  confining  the  arithmetic  work  to  "related  prob- 
lems," but  while  this  is  excellent  in  theory  it  inevitably 
breaks  down  in  practice.  Notwithstanding  the  inade- 
quacy of  shop  problems  as  the  only  source  of  material 
for  prevocational  arithmetic,  it  is  unquestionably  advis- 
able to  draw  upon  such  problems  for  a  considerable  part 
of  the  course. 

The  following  have  been  selected  from  a  large  number 
and  a  wide  range  of  shop-related  and  science-related 
problems  that  have  been  used  in  prevocational  classes 
and  schools.1  They  are  grouped  under  four  heads,  wood- 
working, machine-shop  practice,  printing,  and  science. 
These  problems  are  not  recommended  for  actual  use  in  any 
class,  but  are  merely  suggestive.  The  actual  problems  must 
be  determined  by  the  shopwork  which  the  particular 
class  is  doing. 

1  Especial  recognition  is  made  of  material  kindly  furnished  by 
Mr.  Martin  L.  Olsen,  Quincy  Prevocational  Center,  Boston.    , 


MATHEMATICS 


185 


Blackboard  sketch 
giving  data  re- 
garding stock  re- 
quired for  an 
order  of  fifty 
snow-pushers 


Finished  size  of  head  piece 


Details  of  top  piece 


Problems  related  to  woodworking 

How  many  board  feet  of  lumber  must 
we  order  for  50  snow-pushers? 

Make  handles  68  in.  long.  Three  han- 
dles from  each  oak  board.  Estimate  lum- 
ber for  50  handles. 

The  beech  boards  come  45  in.  long. 
Therefore,  we  get  2  heads  from  1  board. 
Estimate  lumber  for  50  heads. 

The  beech  boards  come  45  in.  long  and 
9i  in.  wide.  How  many  top  pieces  can 
we  get  from  each  board? 


-12- 


h 


Size  of  stock  for  handles 


186  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

How  much  lumber  is  required  for  50  top  pieces? 

At  $60  per  M  for  beech  and  $64  per  M  for  oak,  how  much 
is  the  lumber  bill? 

Eight  boys  made  12  snow-pushers  in  12  days.  How  many 
boys  must  work  on  another  lot  of  12  snow-pushers  to  get  the 
job  done  in  3  days? 

Figuring  the  cost  of  23  broom-holders  made  by  a  prevoca- 


tional  class. 

Name 

No.  of  piece* 

Length 
(inches) 

Width 
(inchee) 

Thickness 
(inches) 

Back 

1 

8 

5 

i 

Front 

1 

5 

5 

i 

Sides 

2 

5 

U 

i 

Back  —  5  X  8  in.  =  40  in.  B.M. 

Front  —  5  X  5  in.  =  25  in.  B.M. 

2  sides  —  2  X  lj  X  5  in.  =  15  in.  B.M. 

Total  in.  B.M.,  80. 

Total  ft.  B.M.  -  80  -s-  144  =  $  ft. 

Cost  at  H  per  ft.  -  f  X  W  =  W> 

Cost  of  23  holders  is  $1.15. 

Cost  of  1  pt.  of  varnish  used  to  finish  23  holders,  the  varnish 
costing  $2.40  per  gal.,  30£. 

Cost  of  labor  at  10#  per  hour  (Average  boy  spent  2i  hours), 
25£  per  holder,  or  $5.75  for  the  lot. 

Total  cost  for  the  lot  —  $1.15  +  .30  +  5.75  -  $7.20. 

Problems  related  to  work  in  the  machine  shop 

1.  On  a  shoulder  bolt  which  you  will  make  in  the  shop,  the 
threaded  part  is  £  in.  long;  the  shoulder,^  in.;  the  bear- 
ing, H  in.;  and  the  head,  |  in.  long.  How  long  a  piece  of 
stock  would  you  cut  for  the  bolt?  (Solve  by  arithmetic 
and  drawing.) 

2.  If  Mr.  Marshall  gave  you  the  job  of  making  four  of  them, 
how  long  a  piece  of  stock  would  you  need  if  you  allowed 
i  in.  on  each  bolt  for  waste  in  cutting  off? 

3.  On  another  shoulder  bolt  the  threaded  portion  is  ^  in. 
in  length;  the  shoulder,  H  in.;  the  bearing,  H  in.; and 
the  head,  $  in.  How  long  is  the  entire  bolt?  (Solve  by 
arithmetic  and  drawing.) 


MATHEMATICS  187 

4.  If  Mr.  Marshall  asked  you  to  make  three  of  them,  how 
long  a  piece  of  stock  would  you  need,  allowing  £  in. 
waste  on  each  bolt  for  cutting  off?  (Solve  by  arithmetic 
and  drawing.) 

5.  On  some  brass  thumbscrews  which  Anthony  made,  the 
threaded  part  was  H  in.  long;  the  knurled  part  measured 
&  in.,  and  the  sloping  side  of  the  head  was  if  in.  long. 
How  long  was  the  thumbscrew?  (Solve  by  arithmetic 
and  drawing.) 

6.  Calculate  the  weight  of  the  12  X  18  in.  bench  block 
shown  in  sketch  below, 

if  1  cu.  in.  of  cast  iron 
weighs  26  lbs. 
If  the  foundry  charges 
us  31^  a  lb.  how  much 
does  the  casting  cost? 
How  much  is  our  bill 
for  6  of  them  if  we 
allowed  a  cash  dis- 
count of  5  and  2  %? 
If  we  charge  $2.50  a- 
piece  for  these  bench  Bench  Block 

blocks,  how  much  do 
we  get  for  our  labor  in  planing  and  painting  them? 

7.  Estimate  the  weight  of  10  brass  paperweights  2£  X  2£  X  I 
in.   (One  cubic  inch  of  brass  weighs  .28  lb.) 

If  we  pay  7$p  per  lb.  for  these  castings,  how  much  is 
the  foundry  bill? 

As  we  paid  within  10  days,  we  got  2%  cash  discount. 
How  much  did  we  pay? 

8.  The  face  plate  casting  for  our  new  lathe  chuck  weighed 
12£lb.  when  it  came  from  the  foundry  and  8  lb.,  2  oz.  when 
machined.    How  many  pounds  of  chips  were  removed? 
How  much  did  the  casting  cost  at  3ff£  per  lb.? 

9.  We  have  ordered  from  the  foundry  100  adjustable  desk 
irons.  How  much  will  the  lot  cost  when  each  pair  of 
irons  weighs  9|  lb.  and  the  foundry  charges  4|^  per  lb. 
for  the  castings? 

In   finishing   these   desk   irons,  we  broke  11  castings. 
What  per  cent  of  the  total  number  were  broken? 


188  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

What  was  the  cost  of  those  broken? 

Bolts,   nuts,  and   washers   for   the   irons   cost  $2.03; 

priming  paint,  $.60;  and  black  varnish  paint,  $1.40.  What 

was  the  total  cost  of  the  desk  irons? 

For  the  finished  product  we  receive  $1.25  per  set.  How 

much  is  our  total  profit? 

10.  Make  out  a  bill   from   the  G Foundry   to  the 

Q School  for  these  castings;  also  a  statement  to 

Mr.  B of  the  completed  job. 

Problems  related  to  work  in  the  printing  shop 

1.  How  many  points  long  is  a  line  of  type  measuring  4§ 
in.?  (It  is  a  line  that  has  been  measured  by  the  pupils.) 

2.  How  many  12-point  ems  equal  in  length  the  above 
line? 

3.  A  printed  page  (a  definite  page  is  in  the  pupils'  mind)  is 
408  points  long.  Find  its  length  in  ems  in  6,  8,  10,  and 
12-point  type. 

4.  A  printed  page  (again  the  pupils  have  a  definite  page  in 
mind  which  they  have  measured)  measures  6£  in.  long. 
Find  the  number  of  ems  in  its  length  when  set  in  6,  8, 10, 
and  12-point  type. 

5.  Find  the  number  of  ems  in  a  book  (a  certain  definite  one 
which  the  pupil  has  examined)  of  84  pages  set  in  8-point 
type,  each  page  being  18  picas  wide  and  32  picas  long. 

6.  "The  Printer's  Dictionary"  has  380  pages,  9  of  which 
are  blank.  Each  page  is  14  picas  wide  and  28  picas  long. 
How  many  ems  in  the  book,  if  set  in  10-point  type? 

Problems  from  science 

1.  The  diameter  of  a  driving  pulley  is  12  in.  and  its  speed  is 
300  R.P.M.  What  is  the  speed  of  the  driven  pulley 
whose  diameter  is  4  in.? 

2.  The  driving  pulley  on  a  shaft  is  40  in.  in  diameter  and 
makes  30  R.P.M.  How  many  revolutions  will  the  driven 
pulley  make  if  its  diameter  is  3  ft.? 

3.  The  diameter  of  the  driving  pulley  is  9  in.  and  its  speed 
is  1000  R.P.M.  What  will  be  the  speed  of  a  driven  pulley 
if  its  diameter  is  5  in.? 


MATHEMATICS  189 

4.  The  surface  speed  of  a  turning  piece  of  work  is  4000  ft. 
per  minute.  If  its  diameter  is  4  in.,  what  is  its  R.P.M.? 

5.  A  certain  grindstone  will  stand  a  surface  or  rim  speed  of 
1000  ft.  per  sec.  At  how  many  R.P.M.  could  it  run  if  its 
diameter  is  40  in.? 

6.  A  combination  of  pulleys  has  a  mechanical  advantage 
of  4§.  What  weight  could  you  lift  with  a  pull  equal  to 
your  own  weight?  With  a  pull  of  80  lb.? 

7.  Could  you  lift  a  300  lb.  radiator,  allowing  20  lb.  to  over- 
come friction? 

8.  If  with  the  differential  pulley  in  the  shop  you  could  lift 
a  640  lb.  casting  with  a  pull  of  80  lb.,  what  is  its  mechan- 
ical advantage? 

9.  If  there  were  no  friction  between  the  parts  the  mechanical 
advantage  of  the  differential  pulley  in  the  shop  would  be 
about  30.  How  much  of  the  mechanical  advantage  is 
lost  in  friction? 

10.  We  found  the  weight  of  a  cubic  foot  of  water.  What  is 
the  weight  of  a  gallon?  The  specific  gravity  of  polarine 
is  about  .87.  How  much  does  a  gallon  of  polarine  weigh? 

Even  a  casual  reading  of  the  foregoing  shop  problems 
will  show  how  futile  it  is  to  teach  "general  principles" 
with  the  expectation  that  these  pupils  will  be  able  to 
apply  them  to  any  and  every  problem  which  may  arise. 

Account-keeping  is  another  practical  application  of 
arithmetic.  It  is  needed  by  all  and  it  furnishes  an  easy 
approach  to  simple  addition  and  multiplication  of  whole 
numbers  and  decimals.  The  word  "bookkeeping"  has 
a  fascination  for  most  boys,  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  adver- 
tisements of  business  colleges  and  to  the  current  idea 
that  it  is  a  practical  subject.  It  should  be  possible  to  find 
some  boy  in  the  class  who  has  sold  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post,  or  daily  papers,  or  who  has  gained,  through  some 
small  business  activity,  the  material  necessary  to  furnish 
a  simple  beginning  for  this  work  in  account-keeping. 
Moreover,  in  a  well-organized  school  there  are  to  be 


190  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

found  many  different  accounts  which  can  be  made  avail- 
able for  the  prevocational  class  and  which  will  furnish 
ample  exercise  for  a  good  beginning  in  account-keeping. 

A  vital  aspect  of  account-keeping  which  should  receive 
due  recognition  is  that  related  to  the  expenditure  of  the 
family  income.  Such  work  is  amply  justified  by  the  re- 
quirements of  utility.  It  is  not  only  desirable  to  teach 
the  potential  worker  how  to  earn  a  larger  income,  but 
it  is  equally  important  to  show  him  how  he  may  spend 
wisely  and  save  consistently.  Inasmuch  as  the  prevo- 
cational boys  may  soon  contribute  to  the  family  income, 
and  since  the  economic  conditions  in  the  homes  of  many 
of  them  are  such  that  they  must  early  become  acquainted 
with  the  problems  of  home  management,  this  subject,  if 
tactfully  presented,  will  produce  an  interested  response. 
Furthermore  it  will  serve  to  show  the  boys  how  some 
of  the  ideals  established  through  the  work  in  history, 
hygiene,  and  English  may  be  realized  even  on  a  small 
income. 

The  following  quotation  from  an  authority  on  house- 
hold management,  Miss  Bertha  M.  Terrill,  will  serve  to 
bring  out  clearly  the  appropriateness  of  this  topic.  She 
says:  — 

.  .  .  Through  failure  to  distinguish  intelligently  between 
needs  and  wants  the  majority  of  people  spend  two  thirds  or 
more  of  their  income  for  what  fails  to  bring  them  the  best  re- 
sults in  health  and  happiness.  There  are  conflicting  opinions 
as  to  what  vital  needs  are,  although  it  would  seem  self-evident 
that  they  consist  materially  of  those  things  which  man  must 
have  to  live  under  the  best  conditions,  such  as  pure  food, 
healthful  clothing,  sanitary  houses,  sufficient  air  and  light, 
together  with  those  things  which  will  minister  to  the  highest 
intellectual  and  spiritual  development.1 

1  B.  M.  Terrill,  Household  Management. 


MATHEMATICS 


191 


Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,1  after  a  study  of  actual  family 
budgets  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  drew  up  some 
"ideal"  budgets  which  are  reproduced  in  the  following 
table:  — 


Ideal  division  of  the  income  for  a  family  of  two  adults  and 
two  or  three  children 


Percentages  for 

Family  Income 

Food 

Rent 

Operating  expenses: 
Fuel,  Light,  Wages, 
etc. 

Clothing 

The  higher  life  : 
Books,  Travel, 
Saving,   Char- 
ity, etc. 

$1001-2000 

25 

20± 

15± 

20  ± 

20 

801-1000 

30 

20 

10 

15 

20 

501-800 

45 

15 

10 

10 

20 

500  and  below 

60 

15 

5 

10 

10 

On  the  basis  of  this  table  it  will  be  possible  to  com- 
pute the  amount  which  any  family  having  a  given  in- 
come should  spend  on  the  various  items  of  the  budget. 
This  can  be  made  extremely  practical  by  ascertaining  or 
estimating  the  actual  incomes  of  families  represented 
by  boys  in  the  class.  Each  item  of  the  budget  should  be 
analyzed.  For  example,  in  dealing  with  the  expenditure 
for  food,  the  teacher  should  have  access  to  some  such 
material  as  appears  in  Lessons  in  Cooking,  part  ix,  pub- 
lished by  the  American  School  of  Home  Economics, 
Chicago.  The  menu  for  one  week  in  May,  for  example, 
may  be  dictated  to  the  boys,  including  the  cost  of  each 

1  Ellen  H.  Richards,  Cost  of  Living. 


192  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

item  as  therein  presented.  The  pupils  might  be  asked 
to  verify  the  prices  given.  Having  found  the  food  cost 
for  a  week,  the  cost  for  a  year  is  easily  estimated.  From 
this  sort  of  work  the  boys  will  be  brought  to  realize  that 
intelligent  buying  is  necessary  to  secure  this  diet,  — 
buying  in  bulk,  seeking  out  the  stores  which  offer  the 
best  bargains,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  market.  If 
each  of  the  other  items  of  the  budget  —  that  is,  rent, 
operating  expenses,  clothing,  and  the  expenditure  for 
the  higher  life  —  is  approached  in  a  somewhat  similar 
way,  there  will  be  no  doubt  that  the  basic  principle  of 
utility  will  be  subserved.  Such  work  is  both  good  arith- 
metic and  good  elementary  "economics,"  and  should 
help  to  convince  the  boys  that  arithmetic  is  something 
which  is  really  useful  in  daily  life. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SHOPWORK  AND   DRAWING 

While  the  shopwork  in  a  prevocational  course  of 
study  has  considerable  vocational  value,  its  major  pur- 
pose is  inspirational  rather  than  vocational,  its  function 
being  to  give  education  an  atmosphere  which  seems 
more  practical  to  the  pupil,  and  which  is  more  closely 
related  to  active  adult  life  than  is  the  work  of  the  ordi- 
nary schoolroom. 

For  this  reason  it  is  impossible  to  say  that  any  par- 
ticular type  of  shopwork  should  be  given  preference  over 
all  other  types.  In  fact,  where  it  is  possible  to  do  so, 
several  different  kinds  of  constructive  work  should  be 
provided  and  the  pupils  should  be  given  an  opportunity 
to  select  one  of  these  or  even  to  experiment  with  all  of 
them.  As  such  a  plan  will  be  difficult  to  carry  out  in 
most  communities,  it  is  generally  found  desirable  to 
select  the  one  kind  of  shopwork  which  seems  most  ap- 
propriate for  the  locality  in  question.  Where  the  com- 
munity is  of  such  a  character  that  no  special  interest 
determines  the  nature  of  the  shopwork,  either  car- 
pentry, general  repair  work,  or  printing  will  serve  excel- 
lently. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  note  briefly  a  few 
different  types  of  shopwork  which  have  proved  effec- 
tive in  stimulating  retarded  pupils  to  an  interest  in 
education  and  in  giving  them  besides  some  vocational 
intelligence.  Before  giving  these  typical  examples,  three 


194  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

general  considerations  common  to  all  prevocational  shop- 
work  will  be  noted.  These  general  considerations  are, 
the  nature  of  the  work  to  be  done,  the  shop  equipment, 
and  the  characteristics  of  the  teacher  to  be  employed. 

The  shopwork  should  be  as  genuinely  practical  as 
possible,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  it  should  result 
in  a  finished  product  of  real  value  which  may  be  used 
by  the  school  or  by  some  other  department  of  the  city,  or 
which,  under  favorable  conditions,  can  be  put  on  the 
commercial  market.  The  reason  for  this  is  not  that  the 
city  may  be  enriched  thereby,  though  there  is  ample  rea- 
son for  welcoming  some  financial  return  from  this  rather 
expensive  form  of  education,  but  rather  because  it  em- 
phasizes the  utility  of  the  education  given  and  because 
it  sets  a  reasonable  standard  of  workmanship  which  the 
pupils  must  reach  before  the  work  can  be  accepted. 
Furthermore,  this  practical  work  is  less  likely  to  become 
formalized  and  reduced  to  a  classwork  basis,  a  tendency 
which  has  been  noted  in  all  school  courses.  In  this  con- 
nection the  principle  may  be  reiterated,  that  reliance 
on  the  systematic  development  of  a  subject  is  to  be  set 
aside  in  favor  of  the  proposition  that  the  doing  of  such 
practical  work  as  comes  to  hand  will  undoubtedly  es- 
tablish principles  and  theories  enough  to  carry  the  pupil 
on  to  still  further  accomplishment.  It  is  held  that 
theory,  unless  applied  immediately,  is  rarely  carried 
over  into  power,  whereas  any  work  of  a  practical  nature 
may  illustrate  at  once  both  the  theory  and  its  applica- 
tion, or  at  least  as  much  of  the  theory  as  the  pupil  could 
get  from  an  abstract  presentation  of  the  work. 

In  this  respect  the  prevocational  shopwork  differs 
materially  from  the  typical  manual-training  work.  The 
courses,  in  manual  training  in  common  with  all  other 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  195 

school  courses,  are  planned  primarily  for  those  children 
who  make  the  normal  progress  through  the  school.  It 
is  expected  that  all  the  work  will  be  done  by  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  class  in  much  the  same  way  as  is  the  work 
in  arithmetic  or  geography.  For  this  reason  manual- 
training  rooms  are  frequently  equipped  with  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  benches  or  lathes  or  forges  in 
order  that  the  twenty  or  twenty-five  boys  in  the  class 
may  all  be  doing  the  same  work  at  the  same  time.  More 
and  more  the  practice  in  the  prevocational  class  is  to 
provide  considerable  variety  in  the  practical  work 
to  be  done  and  to  consult  the  individual  needs  and  apti- 
tudes of  the  pupils  in  assigning  the  work.  In  this  way 
a  greater  demand  is  made  on  the  individual  for  the 
assumption  of  responsibility,  a  feature  which  cannot 
estimated  too  highly. 

Furthermore,  it  should  be  noted  that  only  two  or  three 
hours  a  week  are  allowed  for  the  shopwork  when  given 
in  the  typical  manual-training  course,  and  there  are 
many  instances  where  less  time  is  allowed.  In  the  case 
of  prevocational  work,  however,  it  is  common  to  devote 
from  eight  to  fifteen  hours  a  week  to  the  shopwork  and 
drawing.  It  is  thus  possible  to  carry  the  shopwork  much 
further.  Of  even  greater  importance  is  the  fact  that 
the  pupils  spend  a  much  greater  proportion  of  shopwork 
time  in  the  doing  of  actual  work  and  less  in  the  receiving 
of  class  instruction.  In  other  words,  the  ratio  of  instruc- 
tion to  work  is  much  less  in  a  prevocational  class  than 
in  the  typical  manual-training  course. 

Variety  in  the  nature  of  the  work  to  be  done  requires  a 
corresponding  variety  in  the  equipment.  Where  only  one 
room  can  be  equipped  it  is  desirable  to  bear  this  in  mind. 
Instead  of  providing  twenty  carpenter's  benches,  each 


196  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

equipped  with  a  full  complement  of  woodworking  tools, 
it  is  much  better  to  have  half  that  number  and  to  provide 
a  wall  bench  with  two  or  three  metal  vises,  and  to  install 
a  turning  lathe,  and  possibly  a  hand  forge  and  anvil. 

It  is  desirable  also  to  provide  some  opportunity  for 
instruction  in  the  use  of  machines.  The  kind  of  shop- 
work  usually  given  to  elementary-school  pupils  is 
largely  confined  to  hand  processes.  This  may  be  good 
training,  and  undoubtedly  it  is  justified  from  the  point 
of  view  of  educational  handwork  theories.  There  is  one 
fact,  however,  which  no  one  in  the  industrial  world  will 
dispute,  namely,  that  machinery  will  be  used  more  and 
more  in  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  industrial  prod- 
ucts. Even  if  all  the  machines  in  use  in  a  factory  to- 
day be  replaced  by  others  within  ten  years,  as  is  so  often 
said,  still  the  knowledge  of  machinery,  and  the  ability 
to  handle  it  intelligently,  will  help  the  workman  to  adjust 
himself  to  the  new  order  of  things.  Therefore  training 
in  the  use  of  machinery  will  be  of  value  to  the  future 
industrial  worker  wherever  he  may  go. 

While  few  communities  will  feel  inclined  to  equip  a 
prevocational  shop  as  generously,  the  equipment  of  the 
prevocational  room  of  the  Milwaukee  School  of  Trades 
is  described  herewith  as  an  excellent  example.  This  pre- 
vocational department,  or  "  Preparatory  Department," 
is  similar  in  all  essentials  to  prevocational  schools  and 
classes  in  other  cities.  Though  located  in  the  School 
of  Trades  and  intended  to  be  a  feeder  for  that  insti- 
tution, yet  it  attracts  the  same  type  of  pupils,  and  its 
courses  are  organized  with  the  same  emphasis  on  shop- 
work  and  on  the  practical  phases  of  English,  mathe- 
matics, science,  and  drawing.  Therefore  the  following 
may  serve  to  illustrate  ideal  prevocational  equipment. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  197 

Shop  Equipment,  Preparatory  Department, 
Milwaukee  School  of  Trades 

Woodworking 

Each  bench  is  used  by  two  boys  and  is  equipped  with  two  groups 
of  tools  as  follows:  — 

Group  I.  Individual  tools,  one  for  each  boy  — 
1  block  plane. 
1  smoothing-plane. 
1  jack  plane. 

1  12  in.  back  saw  (13  point). 
4  chisels,  T8^  in.,  f  in.,  f  in.,  1  in. 
1  24  in.  four-fold  rule. 
1  nail  set. 
4  brass  tool-checks. 

1  sloyd  knife. 

Group  II.  Used  in  common  by  both  boys  — 

2  hammers. 

1  12-in.  combination  square. 

1  mallet. 

1  screw-driver. 

1  marking-gauge. 

1  India  oil  stone  (double  face)  in  iron  box. 

1  copper-plated  oil  can. 

The  tool-room  is  equipped  as  follows:  — 
6  rip  saws,  26  in.  (7  point) . 
6  crosscut  saws,  22  in.  (10  point). 
3  compass  saws. 
1  frame  saw. 
1  coping  saw. 
1  hack  saw. 

3  jointer  planes,  22  in. 
1  rabbet  plane,  1|  in. 
1  rabbet  plane,  lj  in. 
1  rabbet  plane,  1  in. 

1  rabbet  plane,  carriage-makers'. 

4  router  planes. 

2  shoot  boards  and  planes. 
6  cabinet  scrapers. 

12  6  in.  spring  dividers. 
1  pair  trammels. 

3  pair  calipers  (outside)  4  in.,  8  in.,  12  in. 
3  pair  calipers  (inside)  4  in.,  8  in.,  12  in. 


198  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

1  pair  calipers  (hermaphrodite)  6  in. 
1  6  in.  monkey-wrench. 
1  12  in.  monkey-wrench. 
12  of  each  size,  turning  chisels,  J  in.,  £  in.,  f  in.,  1  in.,  1 J  in. 

6  turning  gouges,  ^  in. 

12  of  each  size,  turning  gouges,  £  in.,  f  in.,  \  in.,  f  in.,  1J  in. 
4  of  each  size,  parting  tools,  £  in.,  |  in.,  $  in. 
1  12  in.  extension  bit-holder. 
1  16  in.  extension  bit-holder. 
9  hand  drills. 
4  screw  drivers. 

7  braces,  8  in.  sweep. 

3  24  in.  steel  squares. 

8  draw  knives,  4  in. 

1  miter  box. 

2  sets  bits  ^  in.  to  1  in. 
6  dowel  plates 

8  pairs  pincers. 

8  pairs  pliers. 

8  burnishers. 

2  complete  sets  auger  bits,  \  in.  to  1  in. 

4  of  each  size,  short  auger  bits,  ^  in.,  £  in.,  |  in.,  ^  in.,  \  in., 
f  in.,  £  in.,  f  in.,  1  in. 

6  countersink  bits. 

1  moulders'  bellows. 
25  cabinet  files,  8  in. 

8  expansion  bits. 
In  addition  to  the  bench  tools  are  the  following  woodworking 

machines:  — 
Combination  rip  and  crosscut  saw  —  5  H.P.  motor. 
Band  saw  —  3  H.P.  motor. 
12  in.  jointer  —  5  H.P.  motor. 
24  in.  planer  —  5  H.P.  motor. 
Vertical  mortiser  —  3  H.P.  motor. 

Combination  4  emery  wheel  safety  grinder  —  2  H.P.  motor. 
Two  units  (6  in  each)  woodturning  lathes  —  8  H.P.  motor  for  each 
unit. 

Forging 

1  forge.  1  hot  cutter. 

1  anvil.  3  heading-tools. 

1  ball  pein  hammer.  2  pairs  straight  tip  tongs. 

1  sledgehammer.  2  pairs  bolt  tongs. 

1  top  and  bottom  swage.  2  pairs  gad  tongs. 
1  cold  cutter. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  199 

Metalworking 

Benches,  bench  tools,  and  soldering  outfit  — 

1  bench,  maple  top,  3  in.  X  24  in.  X  30  ft. 

9  machinist  vises. 
12  cold  chisels,  f  in. 
12  cape  chisels,  J  in. 
12  ball  pein  hammers 
24  mill  files,  10  in. 
24  half-round  bastard  files,  10  in. 

1  set  drills  T^  in.  to  f  in.  inclusive  (in  32ds). 

8  2  in.  micrometers. 

8  1  in.  micrometers. 

6  pairs  4  in.  "outside"  calipers. 

6  pairs  4  in.  "inside"  calipers. 

1  set  taps  6-32,  8-32,  10-32,  12-24,  14-20. 

1  set  stock  and  dies  6-32,  8-32,  10-32,  12-24,  14-20. 

1  set  number  drills  1  to  60. 

1  "Bunsen"  burner. 

2  blow  torches. 

3  soldering  bolts. 

1  small  set  bending  rolls. 
3  pairs  metal  cutting  shears. 

3  hack  saws. 
Machine  tools  — 

4  hand  metal  turning  lathes. 
1  screw  cutting  lathe. 

1  drill  press. 

1  grinder  for  lathe  tools. 

Important  as  equipment  and  product  may  be  in  a 
scheme  of  prevocational  shopwork,  the  characteristics 
of  the  teacher  in  charge  are  of  even  greater  moment. 
The  principal  or  director  who  tries  to  secure  a  satis- 
factory teacher  will  find  that  the  supply  is  extremely 
limited.  He  will  also  find  that  relatively  little  is  being 
done  to  train  such  teachers,  and  that  he  is  therefore 
put  to  the  necessity  of  developing  one  for  the  particular 
position  in  question.  Furthermore,  most  of  this  train- 
ing must  be  given  after  the  teacher  has  entered  upon 
his  work. 


200  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  two  best  sources  of  supply  for  the  "raw  material " 
seem  to  be  the  manual-training  teachers  and  the  so- 
called  "practical"  men  from  the  industries.  Success  in 
either  of  these  fields  is  no  assurance  that  the  man  will 
succeed  with  prevocational  classes,  for  the  shopman 
must  develop  the  ability  to  teach  and  the  manual- 
training  man  generally  needs  training  in  industrial 
methods  and  industrial  ideals,  and  both  need  most 
careful  and  sympathetic  instruction  regarding  the  pur- 
pose and  methods  peculiar  to  prevocational  work. 

While  it  may  be  possible  to  state  the  characteristics 
which  these  teachers  should  possess,  it  is  extremely 
difficult  to  establish  methods  by  which  these  character- 
istics may  be  discovered  or  standards  by  which  they 
may  be  measured.  In  the  present  stage  of  development 
there  seems  to  be  but  one  sure  method  of  selection, 
namely,  to  try  the  most  likely  candidate  and  to  be  ready 
to  dismiss  him  and  engage  some  one  else  unless  he  suc- 
ceeds immediately  in  gaining  the  confidence  of  the  boys 
and  in  making  them  enjoy  the  work. 

But  the  teacher  himself,  particularly  the  shop-trained 
man,  is  entitled  to  instruction  and  help  from  the  prin- 
cipal or  director  in  charge  of  the  work.  He  should  have 
definite  instruction  as  to  the  purpose  of  his  work  and 
as  to  the  results  which  he  may  reasonably  expect  to 
accomplish.  He  should  also  have  professional  advice  re- 
garding his  methods  of  teaching  and  the  benefit  of  help- 
ful supervision.  Too  frequently  the  shop-trained  teacher 
is  left  to  "work  out  his  own  salvation,"  an  error  in  ad- 
ministration which  should  not  be  permitted  to  occur, 
and  the  results  of  which  should  not  be  charged  against 
the  shop  teacher. 

The  success  of  the  shop  teacher  should  be  judged,  first, 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  201 

by  the  genuine  interest  and  enjoyment  manifested  by 
the  boys  in  the  shop  work;  second,  by  the  excellence 
and  amount  of  the  industrial  product.  It  is  impossible 
to  predict  whether  the  trained  teacher  or  the  practical 
shopman  will  most  surely  meet  these  requirements. 

Some  practical  shopmen  are  natural-born  teachers 
and  learn  almost  immediately  how  to  keep  fifteen  or 
twenty  boys  of  the  prevocational  type  busy,  which 
means  happy.  Many  such  men,  however,  fail  to  keep 
the  whole  class  occupied  because  of  their  inability  to 
care  for  more  than  one  pupil  at  a  time.  Obviously  this 
failure  results  in  a  waste  of  time  and  a  consequent  lack 
of  close  application  to  work.  Some  practical  men  are 
also  ultracritical  and  repressive,  thus  disheartening  the 
boys  in  much  the  same  way  as  did  the  grade  teachers 
under  whom  they  failed  to  develop  an  interest  in  school 
work. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  traditional  manual-training 
teacher,  who  tries  to  carry  all  the  boys  along  the  same 
line  and  who  insists  on  developing  a  high  degree  of 
technical  skill,  is  as  likely  to  be  unfit  as  is  the  untrained 
practical  man.  After  all,  it  is  the  human  characteristics 
which  are  most  important  in  the  qualifications  of  this 
shop  teacher,  and  on  him  and  his  willingness  to  co- 
operate with  other  teachers  rests  much  of  the  success  of 
the  work.  It  is  practically  impossible  to  have  a  success- 
ful prevocational  class  with  an  unfit  shop  teacher. 

ILLUSTRATIVE   EXAMPLES   OF   PREVOCATIONAL 
SHOPWORK 

The  following  material,  relating  specifically  to  the 
shop-work  in  the  prevocational  schools  of  Boston, 
Louisville,  Kansas  City,  and  Chicago,  but  containing 


202  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

also  some  explanation  of  the  organization  and  purpose 
of  these  classes,  was  prepared,  on  special  request,  by 
representatives  of  the  work  in  the  several  cities.1 

Boston,  Massachusetts 
Prevocational  Centers 

The  classes  are  intended  to  consist  of  forty-five  pupils  each, 
fifteen  of  whom  are  in  the  shop,  fifteen  reciting,  and  fifteen 
studying  at  any  given  time  during  the  six-hour  day.  There  is 
no  home  study. 

There  are  eight  centers  at  this  date,  with  thirteen  classes, 
each  with  an  instructor  of  shop  work,  and  an  academic  teacher. 
They  are  located  as  follows:  — 

I.  Austin  Center,  East  Boston.    Three  classes:  Book- 
binding, Machine-Shop  Practice,  Printing. 
II.  Quincy  Center,  City  Proper.    One  class:  Machine- 

Shop  Practice. 
III.  North   Bennet  Street  Center,   City  Proper.    One 
class:  Printing,  Woodworking,  and  Concrete  Work. 
IVo  Sherwin  Center,  Roxbury.    One  class:  Sheet-Metal 
Work. 
V.  Lewis  Center,  Roxbury.  One  class:  Printing. 
VI.  Winthrop  Street  Center,   Roxbury.    Two  classes: 

Bookbinding,  Woodworking. 
VII.  Agassiz  Center,  Jamaica  Plain.  One  class:  Box-mak- 
ing and  Woodworking. 
VIII.  Lyceum  Hall  Center,  Meeting-House  Hill,  Dorches- 
ter.   Three  classes:  Electrical  Work,  Sheet-Metal 
Work,  Woodwork. 

The  shopwork,  eight  to  ten  hours  a  week  per  pupil,  in  each 
class,  is  under  the  direction  of  a  practical  workman,  and,  in 
general,  each  boy  will  spend  but  a  single  year  in  a  given  shop, 
affording  opportunity  for  vocational  directive  advice.  The 
product  is  of  a  commercial  character,  being  based  on  orders 
for  general  school  purposes,  and  each  center  is  credited  with 
the  value  of  goods  produced. 

1  The  Chicago  material  was  prepared  by  Miss  Edith  Brown.  See 
Announcement,  Albert  G.  Lane  Technical  High  School,  1915-1916. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  203 

Details  of  the  equipment  and  work  of  two  centers  only- 
are  given  herewith.  The  Quincy  Center  has  one  shop 
equipped  for  machine-shopwork  and  the  Lyceum  Hall 
Center  has  three  shops  equipped  for  sheet-metal  work, 
electrical  work,  and  cabinet-making.  The  inventory  of 
the  output  of  the  Lyceum  Hall  Center  is  for  the  work 
done  in  the  first  year  of  the  school.  Much  more  is  being 
accomplished  in  the  present  year. 

QUINCY  PREVOCATIONAL  CENTER  * 

Equipment:  Machine  Shop 

Year  Name  of  Cost  when 

purchased  machine  purchased 

1912       1  13  in.  X  5  in.  Prentice  engine  lathe  with  regular 

equipment  of  chucks,  rests,  and  wrenches 250.00 

1912       1  14  in.  X  5  in.  Fay  &  Scott  engine  lathe  with  com- 
plete outfit  of  chucks,  rests,  etc. .  .  .  240.00 

1912       1  8  in.  Stark  bench  lathe  with  split  chucks  from  £ 

in.  X  I  in.,  wrenches  and  chucks 250.00 

1912       1  12  in.  Seneca  Falls  speed  lathe 52.00 

1914  1  10  in.  Blount  pattern  speed  lathe  made  by  Quincy 

Prevocational  Class  '14 58.00 

1915  1  No.  2  Cincinnati  Universal  milling  machine  with 

dividing  head,  vise,  etc 820.00 

1912       1  18  in.  Hendy  toolroom  shaper 280.00 

1912       1  18  in.  X  18  in.  48  Walter  planer 350.00 

1911  1 16  in.  Prentice  back-geared  drill  press 95.00 

1910  1  8  in.  Cohen  Machine  Company  hand  drill  press .       12.00 
1915       1  Worcester  Poly-Tech  design  sensitive  drill  press 

made  by  Quincy  Prevocational  Class  '15 55.00 

1912  1  |  H.P.  Haltzer  Cabot  tool-grinder  with  polishing 

wheel 85.00 

1913  1  6  in.  bench  grinder,  Mechanic  Arts  High  School 

design,  made  by  Quincy  Prevocational  Class  '13       10.00 

1911  1  Wilkinson  bench  hand  shear 15.00 

1914  1  2  hand-power  hack  saw  from  Mechanic  Arts  High 

School. 5.00 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  with  what  a  limited  equipment  the  work 
was  started.  It  illustrates  well  the  fact  that  it  is  not  desirable  to 
wait  until  a  perfect  plan  can  be  put  in  operation. 


204  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

1912       1  power  grindstone  in  iron  frame 20.00 

1912       1 1  H.P.  Sturtevant  motor  and  blower  for  gas  forge  50.00 

1910  24  3  in.  machinist  bench  vises  @  $2.50 75.00 

1911  1  5  H.P.  D.C.  motor  with  starting  panel 180.00 

1912  60  ft.  of  l^s  in.  diamond  line  shafting,  couplings, 
t     pulleys,  and  belts 95.00 

1  16  in.  wet  tool  grinder  (Blount) 50.00 

1  12  in.  X  6  in.  Reed  Prentice  engine  lathe 250.00 

1  12  in.  South  Bend  engine  lathe 185.00 

1  gas  forge 


■"rt  OS 

6" 


Total  value  of  machine-shop  equipment,  exclusive 
of  small  tools  in  tool-room,  at  date  of  purchase  of 
machinery $2825.00 

Depreciation  of  plant  and  equipment  is  usually 
figured  at  3%  per  annum. 

Estimated  present  value $2600.00 

Ontjmt 

1  speed  lathe  112  in.  X  4  ft.,  with  tools,  rests,  centers,  etc.,  for 

wood-turning  and  metal-working. 
80  sets  adjustable  desk  irons  for  Schoolhouse  Commission. 

25  snow  punchers. 

Frame  for  pulley  blocks  and  electrical  apparatus  in  Quincy 
School;  old  1  in.  pipe  used. 
260  blue  prints  for  special  classes. 
180  blue  prints  for  Quincy  Prevocational  Center. 

18  blue  prints  for  Manual  Arts  Department. 
204  angle  irons  for  woodworking  rooms. 
424  bench  strips  for  woodworking  rooms. 
500  bench  stop  wire  springs. 
20  vise  handles,  from  old  pipe,  for  Brighton  High  School. 
7  heavy  screw  drivers. 

26  screw-driver  bits. 

Tempered  and  sharpened  15  wing  dividers  for  Sherwin  Prevoca- 
tional Center. 

6  dowel  plates  with  holes  J  to  J  in. 

3  dowel  plates  (on  hand). 

6  cold  chisels,  \  in. 
18  solid  punches 

6  special  scrapers       y  for  Lyceum  Hall  Prevocational  Center. 
15  scratch  awls 

1  large  cold  chisel 
22  vises  repaired. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  205 

4  cast-iron  bench  blocks  (surface  plates)  12  in.  X  18  in.  X  2  in. 
408  angle  irons  for  School  Committee  Supply  Rooms  delivery  boxes 
made  at  Lyceum  Hall  Prevocational  Center. 
24  double  angle  irons,  for  Dwight  School  Cement  Work. 
6  tamping  tools,  for  Dwight  School  Cement  Work. 
350  blackboard  erasers. 
18  clips  polished  and  lacquered  for  paper  files  sent  to  Christopher 
Gibson  School. 

Hook  made  for  cabinet  clamps  for  Prince  School. 
8  brackets  for  Agassiz  Prevocational  Center. 

Repairs  made  on  guard  for  circular  saw,  Agassiz  Prevocational 
Center. 

Nut  made,  with  chain  and  lock  pin. 

Completed  the  installation  of  the  apparatus  for  the  Montessori 
class  at  the  Andrews  School.  The  boys  cut  off  some  old  brack- 
ets provided  by  the  Assistant  Director  of  Manual  Arts,  bored 
the  holes  to  fit  1  in.  pipe  (second-hand),  scraped  off  the  rust, 
and  painted  pipe  and  screwed  it  on  the  wall.  It  was  necessary 
first  to  fasten  some  boards  on  wall  to  secure  the  brackets. 
Tops  were  made  and  put  on  two  cabinets;  also  hooks  were 
made  for  part  of  apparatus. 

Repaired  floor  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  Quincy  School,  laying  3 
new  boards,  and  changing  position  of  desks. 

In  the  spring  of  1913,  we  made  16  adjustable  devices  for  opening 
and  closing  the  windows  in  the  open-air  class,  Quincy  School. 

Repaired  fire  escape  door  several  times. 

Painted  platform  scales  for  the  school  nurse. 

Made  box  for  school  graphonola. 

Repaired  vise  handles  and  benches  in  Quincy  Manual-Training 
Room. 

Repaired  lock  for  cabinet  in  Room  1,  Quincy  School. 

Fitted  and  screwed  name  plate  on  flagpole  for  Quincy  School 
Hall. 

Adjusted  and  repaired  ten  desks  and  chairs  at  Pierpont  School. 

Repaired  teacher's  swivel  chair. 

Repaired  and  adjusted  29  desks  and  35  chairs,  Quincy  School. 

Repaired  maps,  bells,  locks  for  closets,  toilet  and  outside  door. 

Painted  4  dozen  old  coat -hangers  from  Schoolhouse  Commission 
Storehouse  for  use  in  Quincy  School  Prevocational  toolroom 
and  academic  room. 

(The  above  is  a  very  small  percentage  of  the  work  of  a 
similar  nature  done  at  the  Quincy  School.) 

Repaired  and  maintained  equipment  of  toolroom  and  machinery 
in  Quincy  Prevocational  Center  during  the  past  school  year:  — 

Made  new  lathe  center. 


206  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Made  12  cold  chisels. 
Made  countersinks. 
Made  screw-drivers  and  scrapers. 
Repaired  oil  cans. 

Made  bolts  and  straps  for  planes,  repaired  large  drill  press,  made 
2  face  plates  for  engine  lathes,  etc. 

Estimated  value  of  above  work $515.13 

Job  tickets  are  now  used  for  repair  work  done  by  boys  in 
the  school  buildings.  These  tickets  show  the  actual  amount  of 
time  spent  on  each  job. 

Forty  boys  have  made  for  themselves  small  hammers  and 
screw-drivers,  valued  at  S5£  and  25£  each,  respectively. 
Size  of  class  —  55  (3  divisions). 
Average  age  —  15  years. 

Lyceum  Hall  Center 

Equipment:  Woodworking  Shop 

Sixteen  cabinet  benches  with  rapid  action  vises.  Each  bench 
equipped  with  — 

1  iron  jack  plane.  1  18  in.  steel  rule. 

1  block  plane.  1  hammer. 

1  try-square.  1  saw  (hand). 

1  knife.  1  back  saw. 

1  spokeshave.  1  bit  brace. 

1  gauge.  1  bench  hook. 

1  file.  1  brush. 

1  screw-driver.  1  pencil. 

The  general  tools:  Drills  and  auger  bits,  countersinks,  files,  gouges, 
chisels,  bradawls,  scratch  awls,  etc. 

Machines:  A  power  saw  and  the  prospect  of  a  jointer  and  a  turning 
lathe  in  the  near  future. 

Output 

Arrangement  of  benches  and  fastening  them  to  floor. 

Building  soldering  bench  in  sheet-metal  shop  and  other  jobs 
too  numerous  to  mention  in  that  shop  and  the  electrical 
shop.  This  occupied  several  weeks  at  the  beginning  of  the 
work  in  September. 

A  library  table  for  the  corridor  in  the  upper  hall. 

Bookcase  in  academic  room  connected  with  cabinet-making  shop. 

Tool  racks. 

Mail  box  for  Department  of  Manual  Arts. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  207 

50  boxes  for  delivery  of  manual-training  supplies. 
100  bench  hooks. 

1  cabinet  for  U.  S.  Grant  Prevocational  Center. 

4  manual-training  equipment  boxes. 
10  alphabet  boxes. 

1  oak  desk  attachment. 
50  test-tube  racks. 

48  samples  of  stain  on  oak  and  whitewood. 
200  basket  bottoms. 

2  boxes  with  9  compartments,  6  in.  square. 
1  stand  for  Mather  School. 

1  table  for  office  of  Mather  School. 
1  table  for  Dillaway  School  Suite. 

1  dressing-table  for  Dillaway  School  Suite. 

A  great  deal  of  work  was  done  in  the  school.  The  boys  in  wood- 
working took  up  their  seats  and  desks  from  one  room  and 
put  them  down  in  another  room  upstairs  now  occupied  by  the 
class  in  woodworking. 

Each  boy  was  allowed  20  per  cent  of  the  time  for  his  (Grade 
VIII)  work  and  each  had  a  piece  of  furniture  to  take  home 
at  the  end  of  the  year:  bookcases,  Morris  chairs,  telephone 
tables,  writing-tables.  Seats  with  reed  tops  were  among  the 
models  made,  not  one  valued  at  less  than  $4  and  on  up  to  $15. 

We  are  in  a  position  to  do  much  more  work  in  1914-15  because 
the  rooms  are  now  well  fitted  up  and  we  can  begin  at  the  open- 
ing of  school  on  order  work. 

Estimated  value  of  the  foregoing  work $397.40 

Size  of  class  —  41  boys  (3  divisions). 

Average  age  —  14  years,  7  months. 

Equipment:  Sheet-Metal  Room 

2  dozen  cold  chisels  %  in.  12  punches,  cupped,  2  each  \  in., 
4  dozen  drawing  compasses.  f  in.,  £  in.,  f  in.,  1  in.,  1 J  in. 
4  dozen  drawing  pencils.                  2  dozen  punches,  solid. 

15  drawing  spacers.  1  rasp. 

4  dozen  erasers.  12  rivet  sets,  No.  7  and  no.  8. 
15  extension  bars.  48  rules,  12  in.  flat. 

2  dozen  files  8  in.  flat.  1  dozen  scrapers. 

5  groovers  —  ^  in.,  ^  in.,  \  in.,     1  screw-driver. 

f  in.,  ^  in.  12  steel  squares,  24  in. 

2  8  in.  hack  saws.  15  T  squares,  30  in. 

1  hammer  —  heavy.  1  pair  trammel  points. 

4  hammers  —  raising,  2    large;     3  pairs  plyers  — -  cutting. 

2  small.  3  pairs  plyers  —  round-nose. 


208 


FREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


6  lead  cakes  4  in.  X  8  in. 
1  wire-cutter. 

Bench  tools  — 

15  pairs  no.  9  straight  snips. 

15  pairs  no.  9  circular  snips. 

15  riveting-hammers,  no.  5. 

15  2  in.  mallets. 

15  pairs  flat  pliers,  5  in. 

15  scratch  awls. 

15  Stanley  no.  68  2  ft.  rules. 

15  small  squares,  8  in.  X  6  in. 

1  6  in.  Coes  monkey-wrench. 

1  10  in.  Coes  monkey-wrench. 

4  soldering  pans  no.  6. 

£  dozen  l£  lb.  solder  coppers. 

\  dozen  2  lb.  solder  coppers. 

1  dozen  solder  copper  handles. 

1  Stubb  wire  gauge. 

1  plumbers'  solder  crucible. 

1  small  ladle. 

1  square  pan  swage,  no.  121. 

1  millers'    square    pan-former, 
no.  499. 

1  blackboard  compass. 

3  blackboard  triangles,  1  each, 
45°,  30°,  60°. 


4  dozen  triangles,  45°,  7  in. 

4  dozen  triangles,  30°  X  60°,  9  in. 


1  cornice  brake,  48  in.  long. 
1  square  shear,  36  in. 
1  tin  folder,  20  in. 
1  former  or  roller,  30  in. 

1  small  beading  machine  and 

stand,  no.  4. 

2  wiring  machines. 

2  large  turning  machines. 
2  small  turning  machines. 
2  large  burring  machines. 
2  small  burring  machines. 
1  blowhorn  stake. 
1  beakhorn  stake,  no.  2. 
1  creasing  stake. 

1  coppersmith's  stake. 

2  7  in.  Hatchett  stakes. 

1  double  seaming  stake. 

2  square  stakes. 

1  round-head  stake. 
4  Niagara  stands. 

2  no.  11  hollow  mandrels. 

2  4$  in.  vises. 

3  no.  2  bench  plates. 


Output 

Setting  up  benches  and  machines  and  erecting  firepot  bench. 

Fitting  and  setting  hood  over  motor  in  cabinet  room. 

Drip  pan  for  squaring  shears  in  sheet-metal  room. 

Gas  stove  pan  for  Lyceum  Hall. 

Register  damper  for  classroom. 

Large  garbage  pail  for  Lyceum  Hall. 

Covering  bench  at  E.  Greenwood. 
6  blueprint  cases  for  Dorchester  High  School. 
3  galv.  iron  drip  pans  for  Schoolhouse  Custodian. 
2  galv.  iron  filing-cases  for  Department  of  Manual  Arts. 

Covering  long  bench  in  electrical  room,  Lyceum  Hall. 
2  emery  wheel  guards  for  Quincy  Prevocational  Center. 

Sign  for  Lyceum  Hall  sheet-metal  room. 
36  ink-fillers  for  Mather  School. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  209 

45  garbage  pails  with  strainers. 
40  ice-chest  drip  pans. 

8  flowerboxes  with  pans  for  classrooms. 
40  hanging  conical  flowerpots. 
40  ventilators,  4  in. 

8  umbrella  stand  drip  pans  for  Hyde  Park  High  School. 
40  fire  pots. 

40  combination  measure  and  funnel. 
45  waste  cans. 

Screw  tray  for  Lyceum  Hall  electrical  room. 

Repairing  bench  at  Jefferson  School. 

1  auto  tire  tester. 
24  shellac  cans. 

3  galv.  iron  plates,  asbestos-lined,  for  Agassiz  Prevocational  Center. 
40  small  flower  watering  pots,  capacity  2  quarts. 
40  large  flower  watering  pots,  capacity  2  gallons. 
40  mooring  cans. 

45  sets  U.S.  standard  measures,  6  measures  to  a  set. 
90  scoops. 
45  small  funnels. 
45  large  funnels. 
45  sugar  caddies. 
100  doughnut  cutters. 
10  ash-barrel  covers. 

2  large  scrap  barrels. 
1  large  garbage  can. 

1  large  waste  can. 

2  auto  drip  pans  for  Schoolhouse  Commission. 
2  shellac  cans. 

Estimated  value  of  above  work $426.00 

Size  of  class  —  43  boys  (3  divisions). 
Average  age  —  13  years,  8  months. 


Equipment:  Electrical  Room 
Benches  — 

15  4  ft.  sloyd  benches,  tool  equipment  — 

l£  in.,  3  in.,  6  in.,  "Tuck"  screw-drivers. 

1  2  ft.  rule. 

1  medium  hammer. 

1  6  in.  pair  side  cutting  pliers. 

1  pencil. 
1  Walworth  hinged  vise  bench. 
4  4  ft.  benches  for  general  work. 


210  FREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Shop  tools  — 

3  Millers  Falls  bit  braces. 

6  1§  lb.  soldering  coppers. 
S  12  in.  flat  files. 

8  15  in.  level  and  plumbs. 

8  12  in.  rat-tail  files. 

1  Clayton  &  Lambert  1  quart  gasolene  torch. 

1  12  in.  high  back  hack  saw. 

8  no.  7  Disston  &  Sons  crosscut  saws. 

4  6  in.  try  squares. 

1  set  right  and  left  |  in.  to  1  in.  "Walworth"  pipe  dies. 

Electrical  equipment  — 

Holtzer-Cabot  motor  generator,  110  volts  A.  C. 

Generator  generates  from  3  to  15  volts  D.  C. 
1  motor  generator  switch  board  with  local  power  company's 

service,  110  volts  and  220  volts  A.  C. 
1  "Weston"  volt-meter,  3  to  150  volts  D.  C. 
1  "General  Electric"  volt-meter,  50  to  350  volts  A.  C. 
1  Mohawk  Bell  transformer,  110  volts  to  6-10-16  volts. 

1  sign  lamp  transformer,  110  volts  to  10  volts. 
40  carbon  wet  cells. 

8  Samson  wet  cells. 
50  no.  6  Columbia  dry  cells. 

7  4  point  annunciators. 

10  Western  Electrical  Company  open  board  battery  call  tele- 
\      phones. 
4  Couch  magneto  call  telephones. 

2  Couch  model  phones. 

Shop  materials  and  devices  — 

Material  for  the  wiring  of  call-bell  circuits. 
For  the  wiring  of  electric  gas-lighting  circuits. 
For  elementary  electric  lighting  and  switch  control. 
For  wiring  surface  the  boys  built  a  structure  representing  the 
first  and  second  floors  of  a  house  27  feet  long  by  8  feet  wide, 
which  accommodates  fifteen  boys:  eight  boys  on  the  first 
floor  and  seven  on  the  second. 
Mr.  Cole,  Wire  Commissioner,  gave  the  Lyceum  Hall  class  one 
hundred  dollars  worth  of  electrical  fittings,  including  an  arc 
lamp,  one  sign  lamp  transformer,  a  display  board  of  cut-outs 
and  fuse  blocks,  and  fittings  that  are  of  great  value  in  electrical 
construction.   With  material  given  to  our  school  by  Mr.  Cole, 
free  of  charge,  12  display  boards  were  made  for  use  in  shop 
instruction. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING 


211 


Each  boy  was  given  a  book  containing  electrical  shop  notes  on 
"Electrical  Work  Troubles"  compiled  by  Mr.  Moriarty,  printed 
by  the  Prevocational  Class  in  the  Lewis,  and  placed  in  book 
covers  made  by  the  Agassiz,  Prevocational  Center. 

Electrical  display  boards  — 
Articles 


Condulet  fittings 

B.  X.  cable  and  fittings 

Carbon  products 

Cut-out  blocks 


Received  from 
Crouse-Hinds  Company,  Syracuse,  N.Y. 
Sprague  Electric  Company,  New  York 

City. 
National  Carbon  Company,  Cleveland, 

Ohio. 
D.  &.  W.  Fuse  Company,  New  York  City. 
Auger  bit  method  of  manu- 
facturing Russell  Jennings  Company. 
Hard  rubber                          Lyceum  Hall  Prevocational  Center. 
Porcelain 
Enclosed  fuses 
Asbestos  and  mica 
Slate 

Weather-proof  sockets 
Outlet  boxes 
Wire  terminals 
Wire  samples 
Knife  switches 
Permanent  magnets 
Metals  used  in  making  elec- 
trical fittings 

Output 

Bell  wiring  additions  and  recharging  of  Lyceum  Hall  School  bell 

batteries. 
Wiring  for  a  double  return  call  bell  circuit  at  the  Department  of 

Manual  Arts. 
Repairing  bell  at  Public  Latin  School. 
Repairing  boiler  light,  Mather  School. 
Repairing  doorbell  button,  John  Winthrop  School. 
Installing  new  lighting  in  the  manual-training  room,  John  Winthrop 

School. 
Constructing  a  three-party  telephone  line  connecting  Mather,  Old 

Mather,  and  Lyceum  Hall  Schools. 
Telephone  line  connecting  the  electrical  shop  with  the  electrical 

classroom. 
Care  of  saw  motor  in  woodworking  room. 


212  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Estimated  value,  exclusive  of  course-work $283.50 

Size  of  class  —  42  boys  (3  divisions). 
Average  age  —  13  years,  9  months. 

Louisville  Kentucky 

The  Louisville  Prevocational  School  was  opened  in 
September,  1913,  with  classes  in  printing,  bookbinding, 
and  woodworking,  aggregating  thirty-two  pupils,  both 
boys  and  girls.  So  great  was  the  interest  taken  in  the 
new  work  and  so  numerous  the  applications  for  admis- 
sion to  the  classes,  that  the  Board  of  Education  decided 
to  provide  more  commodious  quarters. 

Eighty  pupils,  forty  girls  and  forty  boys,  are  accom- 
modated in  the  present  plant,  and  there  is  a  waiting  list 
of  applicants  from  which  vacancies  are  promptly  filled. 
To  the  printing,  bookbinding,  and  cabinet-making  have 
been  added  electrical  wiring  for  boys  and  trade  sew- 
ing for  girls.  The  printing,  which  includes  composition, 
proof-reading  and  presswork,  is  open  to  both  boys  and 
girls. 

The  program  of  the  school  is  planned  on  a  half-time 
shop  schedule,  with  the  other  half  devoted  to  academic 
work  which  parallels  that  of  the  regular  seventh  and 
eighth  grades. 

Great  freedom  is  given  the  pupils  in  their  choice  of 
shop  courses,  and  opportunities  are  provided  for  making 
changes  when  any  good  reason  develops  for  doing  so. 
As  a  result  their  interest  in  the  school  is  so  great  that 
many  pupils  remain  after  finishing  the  eighth  grade, 
being  anxious  to  continue  their  chosen  work  as  long  as 
home  conditions  permit. 

The  school  is  not  intended  for  mentally  deficient 
pupils,  but  for  those  boys  and  girls  whose  circumstances 
and  conditions  are  such  that  they  are  likely  to  leave 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  213 

school  early.  A  number  of  sixth-grade  pupils  who  are 
thirteen  years  of  age  have  been  admitted  for  various 
reasons,  and  for  this  particular  group  there  is  always 
an  open  door.  The  average  age  of  the  pupils  is  fourteen 
years  and  eight  months,  and  the  average  grade  is  the 
seventh.  The  size  of  the  classes  is  limited  to  sixteen 
pupils,  and  the  shop  instructors,  with  one  exception,  are 
practical  trades  people. 

The  equipment  and  product  of  only  the  printing-shop 
and  bindery  will  be  given. 

Printing  Equipment,  September,  1913 

1  10  in.  X  15  in.  job  press,   rebuilt,  with  short  ink  fountain. 

1  8  in.  X  12  in.  job  press,  rebuilt,  no  fountain  (7  X  11). 

2  electric  motors,  A.  C.  110  volt,  £  H.P.  with  starting  boxes. 
1  paper  cutter,  30  in.,  rebuilt,  lever  (25£  in.). 

4  extra  10  in.  X  15  in.  chases  (cast  iron). 

4  extra  7  in.  X  11  in.  chases  (cast  iron). 

1  gas  burner,  Hickok,  with  connections. 

2  gluepots,  1  quart  double  jacket. 

1  font  36  point  type,  caps  and  lower  case. 

-I  «  QA  <<  «  <(  «<  <(  (( 

1     "     18       "        '*         "        "        "  " 

1     "      12        "        "         *'        "         "  " 

1       «        -tn  it  «  «  <<  <«  <( 

1        «  o  <*  it  («  <«  <<  « 

1        «<  a  M  («  ((  >  «  (« 

150  pounds  10  point  body  type  with  spaces  and  quads. 
50  pounds    8     " 

1  type  cabinet  no.  62  F.  T.  New  Departure,  25  drawers  full  size 

with  mortised  label-holders. 

2  2  X  12  Buckeye  composing  sticks. 
6  2X8 

6  2X6 

5  dozen  pairs  quoins,  no.  1  Challenge  Hemphill. 

5  keys  for  above. 

6  tweezers. 

2  dozen  gauge  pins,  spring  tongue. 
1  all  brass  galley,  9  in.  X  14  in. 
4  "      "         "      6  in.  X  10  in. 
4  "      "         "     8|  in.  X  13  in. 


214  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

4  planers,  3  in.  X  6  in.  maple. 

1  bellows,  small. 

9  line  gauge  rules,  wooden. 

4  proof  planers,  3j  in.  X  8  in. 
1  palette-knife,  6  in.,  style  A. 
1  24  in.  X  36  in.  imposing  stone  (no  frame). 

10  pounds  extra  quads,  10  point;  1,  2  and  3  M. 

5  pounds     "         "         8     "       1,  2  and  3  M. 
1  pair  steel  roller  supporters,  10  in. 

1  "       "        "  "  7  in. 

2  one  pint  benzine  cans,  brass  safety  top  Success. 
1  6  point  assorted  quads  and  spaces,  job  fonts 
18  " 
110  " 
112  " 
1  18  " 
136  " 
1  table  knife. 

1  no.  4  reglet  case,  half  pica  and  half  nonpareil,  2100  pieces. 
1  case  no.  12  labor-saving  furniture,  560  pieces  with  case. 

3  packages  metal  furniture,  2  X  4  to  2  X  10,  12  pounds. 

3  pound  font  labor-saving  brass  rule,  £  point  face  with  face  on  side 

(2  point  rule). 
3  pound  font  labor-saving  brass  rule,  l£  point  face  with  face  on 

side  (2  point  rule). 
100  pound  2  point  leads,  labor-saving  with  lead  and  slug  case. 
3  blue  brushes,  round  no.  5  rubber  set  Russia. 
1  benzine  brush,  bristle. 

6  bone  folders,  7  in. 

Additional  Printing  Equipment,  September,  191% 

1  job  press,  8  in.  X  12  in.,  new  C.  &  P.,  complete  for  motor. 
1  electric  motor,  110  volts,  \  H.P.,  Kimble. 
3  extra  8  in.  X  12  in.  chases  (cast  iron). 

1  type  cabinet  no.  62  F.  T.  New  Departure,  25  drawers  full  size 

with  mortised  label-holders. 

2  palette-knives,  6  in.,  Style  A. 

3  brayers,  6  in. 

1  imposing  stone,  24  in.  X  36  in.,  no  frame. 

6  pairs  steel  roller  supporters,  8  in. 

1  5  pound  font  labor-saving  brass  rule,  2  point  with  \  point  face  on 

side. 
1  no.  00  Challenge  proof  press,  9  in.  X  27  in.  bed,  without  stand 

(new  or  second  hand). 
1  font  36  point  Author's  Old  Style. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING 


215 


2  fonts    6  point  Old  Style  no.  59  italics. 

2     "       8     "       "       "       "   59      " 

lfont   10     "       "       "       "   59      " 

2  fonts  12     "       "       "       "    59      " 

1  font   12     "     no.   8  Light  Copperplate  Gothic. 


2  fonts  12 

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2     " 

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lfont 

18 

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"   29  Heavy  Copperplate  Gothic. 

1    " 

12 

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2  fonts 

6 

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"   24       " 

2     " 

6 

<< 

M      22            «« 

lfont 

18 

<< 

"   79      "               "                "      extended 

1    " 

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"   74      "               "                "      extended 

lfont 

18 

<< 

Shaw  Text  Series. 

1    " 

12 

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<<                       14                    << 

1    " 

10 

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<«                      «                      « 

1    " 

72 

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Delia  Robbia. 

1    " 

30 

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1    u 

18 

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assorted  spaces  and  quads,  job  fonts. 

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<<            «<        <<        <<          <<       << 

4  fonts  18 

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9     "       6     " 

5  ft.  6  point  Border  No.  675,  B.  B.  &  S. 
5"  6  "  "  "  691,  B.  B.  &S. 
5"    6     "  "        "      687,  B.  B.  &  S. 

4*  "  12     "  "        "     1245,  B.  B.  &  S. 

3  "  18     "  "        "       507,  B.  B.  &  S. 

1  ornament  No.  48029,  American  Type  Foundry. 

4  ornaments  No.  42010,  American  Type  Foundry. 

1  ornament  No.  34  Kate  Greenaway,  American  Type  Foundry. 

1  ornament  No.  51  Kate  Greenaway,  American  Type  Foundry. 
8  composing  sticks,  2  in.  X  6  in.    "Star"  nickel-plated  steel. 

6  "  "       2  in.  X  8  in. 

2  "  "       2  in.  X 12  in. 


Bookbinding  Equipment,  September,  191k 


4  shoemaker's  hammers. 
8  shoemaker's  knives. 
6  pairs  shears,  8  in. 


10  dozen  needles,  assorted. 
4  bradawls. 
2  long-bladed  knives. 


216  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

6  lithograph  stones,  12  in.  X  14  in.  3  fonts  brass  type. 

1  sandstone  (whetstone).  1  button-fastener  machine. 

1  pair  dividers,  8  in.  1  punching  machine  and  3  dies 

1  round  corner  gouge.  for  same. 

1  dozen  bone  folders.  x  eyelet  punch. 

2  paring  knives.  1  back  saw. 

1  standing  press,  16  in.  X  24  in.  2  glue  kettles. 

4  brass-bound  boards  for  press.  2  paste  pots. 

5  laminated  boards.  1  dozen  glue  and  paste  brushes, 
1  case  gauge.  assorted  sizes. 

1  backing  machine,  24  in.  jaws.  1  gas  plate. 

1  backing  hammer.  1  dozen  brass  edge  rulers. 

1  sewing  bench  from  factory.  4  belt  punches,  assorted  sizes. 

6  sewing  benches  made  in  school  1  gold  cushion,  knife,  etc.,  for 

shop.  lettering. 

1  lettering  pallet. 

The  variety  possible  in  printing  and  bookbinding  is 
so  great  that  a  detailed  statement  of  all  the  work  done 
cannot  well  be  made  here.  It  should  be  said,  however, 
that  much  of  it  is  on  a  commercial  basis  and  all  is  emi- 
nently practical.  An  early  circular  of  the  school  con- 
tains the  following  statements :  — 

Work  has  been  sent  to  the  class  by  the  Board  of  Education, 
the  Parent-Teacher  Associations,  Social  Centers,  and  many 
philanthropic  and  civic  organizations.  The  work  done  for  the 
Board  of  Education  and  the  money  received  from  outside 
jobs  are  credited  to  the  class  on  the  books  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  the  jobs  done:  — 

Parent-Teacher  Association  notices,  dodgers,  tickets,  letter- 
heads, envelopes 9,920 

Principal's  notices 3,650 

Supervisors'  outlines  or  bulletins 1,250 

Board  of  Education  circulars 30,500 

Consumers'  League  notices 2,400 

Louisville  Educational  Association  notices  and  tickets 1,800 

In  five  months,  from  September  to  February  1,  the  class 
made  91,500  impressions. 

At  the  end  of  the  job,  the  job  envelopes  contain  copy,  proof, 
revise,  pressproof ,  and  finally  three  copies  of  the  job.  On  the 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  217 

wall  are  time-cards  showing  each  child's  record  upon  each 
part  of  each  job.  Proof-reading  is  accentuated  for  the  girls. 
A  good  proof-reader  in  Louisville  may  command  from  $15 
to  $20  a  week,  and  many  places  are  filled  by  women.  High 
upon  the  walls  stands  a  time-clock,  by  means  of  which  the  time 
spent  upon  each  job  is  computed  by  the  unit  system  in  use 
in  factories. 

The  printers  of  the  city  have  taken  a  generous  interest  in 
the  work.  A  visiting  printer  happened  to  find  the  shop  busy 
turning  out  an  order  for  twenty-six  thousand  envelopes  for  the 
School  Children's  Thanksgiving  Fund.  The  time-card  showed 
fifteen  hundred  envelopes  struck  off  in  an  hour  and  a  half. 
The  wastebasket  showed  only  nine  spoiled  envelopes.  This 
record  for  time  and  waste  he  declared  would  stand  comparison 
with  more  experienced  labor. 

A  few  examples  of  the  work  done  in  printing, 
selected  from  a  great  variety,  are  shown  (pp.  218r-2£0). 

Bindery  jobs 

Theme  tablet  covers  for  entire  school.  Full  cloth  turned  in  and  lined 
with  paper  —  punched  and  eyeleted  to  fit  punched  tablet. 

End  fold  notebooks.  Newspaper  stock  —  tag-board  covers  —  thread- 
stitched  —  cloth  strip  on  back  of  fold. 

Envelopes  of  various  sizes  for  school  use  (mailing). 

Advertisement  cards  —  punched  and  strung. 

Making  pads  —  count,  glue,  cut  apart  —  wrap  in  packages. 

Pocket  memorandum  books.  Tag-board  cover  —  thread-stitched  — 
cloth  strip  on  back. 

Pass  books  —  full  cloth. 

Pass  books  —  full  leather. 

Renewable  pads  —  memorandum. 

Paper  perforated.  Covers  made  of  leather  —  lettering  black  or  gold. 

P.  T.  Association  programs.  Folded,  stitched  with  silk. 

Desk  blotter  holders  —  cloth  corners. 

Desk  blotter  holders  —  leather  corners. 

Magazines  bound  —  cut  flush. 

Magazines  bound  —  full  cloth. 

Portfolios.  Full  cloth  with  3  flaps. 

Leather  card  cases.  Fold  in  center.  Made  throughout  with  paste. 

Scrapbooks  —  loose  leaf. 

Scrapbooks  —  sewed. 


218 


PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


LOUISVILLE,    KY„ 


.191 


M. 


in  account  with 

PREVOCATIONAL  SCHOOL 

8TH  AND  CHESTNUT  STREETS 


MANUAL  TRAINING  HIGH  SCHOOL 

Night  School  Enrollment  Card 


Name. 


Address. 


Occupation. 


Where  employed. 


If  not  now  employed. 


Where  last  employed. 
Course  desired 


File- 


For. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING 


JOB  TICKET 


Date. 


Job  No. 


Deliver  at. 
Quantity  _ 


Description. 
Promised 


Size. 


COMPOSITION 

PRESSWORK 

Compositor 

Hours 

Pnlnr  nf  Tnlr 

Remarks 

Pressman 

Hours 

PUT  COPY,  PROOF  AND  THREE  SAMPLES  IN  TICKET  * 
1  The  ticket  is  printed  on  an  envelope. 


oo  r^  co  oocvj  co  oooco  oo  cocm 

10  O)  J-  oo  cm  o)  cooo  ooj-  cor^ 

lO  00  00CO  J"  Is-  COlOO)  CD  0)00 

oo  J- cm  loo)  r^.  ioo>cm  oo  cmlo 

00  CM00O)  J"  COCMI^O)  io  cm  r^ 

O)  00COCO  iooo  J-oooocm  I^LO 

O)  j- 1^00  00  CM  0)CM  Is*  CO  CMCO 

r^  oo  ooiooococo  r^co  O)  h*0) 

ooi^ioooo)cmcoo)J-oo  r^j- 

r^iooor^CMooo)CMCOoo  oor^ 

h*  oocoioco  toooio i^  n  cmo) 

00  I^OOlOOOCMOOOOO)  00  CMI^ 

cocor^d-d-tod"r^o)co  o>J- 

J-CM00CMO)lO00l^iOlO  J-co 

O)  CMI^  oocm  J-to  r^  J-O)  OO) 

Printed  in  quantity  for  arithmetic  drill  in  the  schools 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  221 

Loose-leaf  post  card  albums. 

Bill  folds  —  full  leather  —  silk  lined. 

Passbooks  —  bound  in  leather  (tan)  —  name  on  front. 

Passbooks  —  full  leather  with  pencil-holder,  pocket  and  flap  with 

button. 
Fancy  calendars  for  holidays. 

Magazine  binding  —  leather  back  and  corners  —  boards  laced  on. 
Magazines  bound  in  leather  with  hand-decorated  end  sheets. 
Filing  cases  —  full  cloth  —  3  pockets  on  each  side  of  fold. 
Circulars  —  four-page  fold,  count,  wrap. 

The  outlook  for  next  year  is  most  promising,  when, 
with  a  larger  building,  the  enrollment  is  expected  to 
reach  one  hundred  and  twenty  pupils. 

Kansas  City,  Missouri 
Lathrop  School 

The  Lathrop  School  for  Boys,  in  Kansas  City,  Mis- 
souri, is  open  to  all  boys  of  the  city  who  have  completed 
the  fifth  grade l  in  the  elementary  schools,  or  who  are 
twelve  years  of  age  or  over.  It  is  a  prevocational  school 
and  intended  to  offer  prevocational  experiences  in  car- 
pentry, shop  electricity,  plumbing,  painting,  cabinet- 
making,  wood-turning,  and  printing. 

On  entering  the  school  the  boys  are  advised,  after  con- 
sultation, to  enroll  in  certain  classes  in  which  they  seem 
to  have  a  desire  to  work.  They  are  not  permitted  to 
change  their  shop  subjects  until  the  expiration  of  ten 
weeks,  at  which  time  if  they  wish  they  may  select  some 
other  shop.  At  the  end  of  twenty  weeks  they  are  ex- 
pected to  change  shops,  and  at  the  end  of  one  year  all 
boys  are  compelled  to  change  shops  for  new  experiences, 
unless  excused  for  some  good  and  sufficient  reason. 

The  boys  who  make  the  changes  every  ten  weeks  are 

1  There  are  but  seven  grades  in  the  elementary  schools  of  Kansas 
City. 


222  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

thereby  able  to  obtain  experiences  in  eight  different  lines 
of  shopwork  during  the  two  years.  On  an  average,  each 
boy  obtains  experiences  in  three  or  four  of  these  shop 
courses.  Some  are  in  attendance  only  one  year,  having 
enrolled  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  grade. 

On  the  completion  of  their  course  in  this  school  they 
are  encouraged  to  attend  the  Vocational  High  School. 
About  fifteen  boys  who  graduated  from  the  Lathrop 
School  last  year  are  in  attendance  at  this  high  school. 
The  prevocational  training  given  in  the  Lathrop  School 
aids  the  boys  quite  materially  in  "locating"  themselves 
at  once  in  the  kind  of  work  they  expect  to  follow.  It 
also  gives  them  a  general  hand  training  and  skill  in  the 
use  of  tools,  which  is  not  noticeable  in  boys  enrolling 
from  the  other  schools. 

At  the  Lathrop  School  the  boys  spend  one  half  the 
time  in  the  shops,  and  one  half  in  the  study  of  academic 
subjects,  including  mechanical  drawing. 

Details  of  the  equipment  and  output  of  the  classes  in 
wood-turning  and  cabinet-making  only  are  given  here- 
with. 

Equipment  of  wood-turning  shop 

10  benches.  10  chisels,  skew,  1  in. 
6  bevels,  "T,"  3  in.  1  set  pattern  makers'  clamps. 

13  bits,  auger.  23  clamps,  hand. 

1  bit,  expansive.  1  clamp,  saw. 

3  braces,  ratchet,  5  in.  12  clamps,  carriage. 
3  brushes,  varnish,  2  in.  6  countersinks. 

10  calipers,  6  in.  10  dividers,  wing. 

2  calipers,  inside.  2  drills,  ^  in. 
10  chisels,  }  in.  2  drills,  ^  in. 
10  chisels,  j  in.  2  drills,  &  in. 
10  chisels,  i  in.                                  2  drills,  ^  in. 

10  chisels,  1  in.  3  files,  3-cornered. 

10  chisels,  skew,  \  in.  16  files,  6  in. 

10  chisels,  skew,  j  in.  1  file,  flat. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING 


223 


1  grindstone. 

3  rasps,  flat. 

5  gauges,  marking. 

3  rasps,  half  round. 

10  gouges,  f  in. 

10  saws,  back,  12  in. 

10  gouges,  £  in. 

10  saws,  crosscut. 

10  gouges,  £  in. 

2  saws,  keyhole. 

10  round-nose  tools,  f  in. 

10  saws,  panel. 

10  round-nose  tools,  £  in. 

1  saw,  band. 

10  parting  tools,  |  in. 

1  saw  set. 

1  brazing  clamp. 

6  scrapers,  cabinet. 

8  extra  line  centers  for  lathe. 

10  screw-drivers. 

9  gouges,  £  in. 

3  spoke-shaves. 

9  gouges,  £  in. 

2  squares,  framing. 

4  hammers,  claw. 

10  squares,  " try,"  iron-stock,  8  in. 

3  knives,  draw,  8  in. 

15  stones,  oil. 

11  lathes,  with  equipment. 

10  stones,  "  slip." 

10  mallets,  wooden. 

1  emery  dresser. 

5  nail  sets. 

4  rivet  hammers. 

10  oilers,  tin. 

6  pattern  knives. 

6  planes,  block. 

1  wood  trimmer. 

1  plane,  circular. 

6  band  saws. 

10  planes,  jack,  iron,  14  in. 

1  pair  brazing  tongs. 

2  planes,  smoothing,  iron,  7  in. 

1  glue  cooker. 

1  pliers. 

Output  of  wood-turning  shop 

Project 

Made  for               Cost  °^             Market 
J                  material             value 

11  dozen  old  dumb  bells  re- 

turned 
24  indoor  ball  bats 

12  outdoor  ball  bats 

21  pair  f  lb.  Indian  clubs 
21  pair  1  lb.  Indian  clubs 
18  pair  1  lb.  Indian  clubs 
6  pair  lj  lb.  Indian  clubs 
2  dozen  3|X6  in.  mallets 
24  chisel  handles 
20  stools,  poplar  (3  24  in.  and 
17  18  in.  high) 

1  oak  stool,  26  in.  high 
18  oak  stools,  24  in.  high 

18  oak  stools,  18  in.  high 

2  oak  stools,  28  in.  high 

19  stools,  gum  (3  24  in.  and 

16  18  in.  high) 


Supply  Department 


PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


Project 

Made  for                 Co**0/,            Mar** 
material             value 

8  oak  stools  (2  24  in.  and 

6  18  in.  high)                  Supply  Department 

12    pair    calisthenics    rings 

6$  in. 

tt 

6  dozen  old  Indian  clubs, 

refinished                             " 

** 

500  7-16  dowels 

tt 

1  dozen  file  handles                   M 

tt 

4  hammer  handles                      " 

*t 

6  dozen  pair  Indian  clubs 

15  in. 

386  old  dumb  bells,  refinished 

tt 

1^  dozen  mallets                          " 

tt 

48  chisel  handles                          " 

tt 

20  duck  pins                     Play-Room,  Lathrop  School 

10  stools   (4  18  in.  and  6 

24  in.  high)                     Supply  Department 

104  dumb  bells 

" 

114  old  dumb  bells,  refinished     " 

«« 

100  old  Indian  clubs,  refin- 

ished 

tt 

158  Indian  clubs                            " 

tt 

26  mallets 

tt 

62  calisthenics  rings                    " 

tt 

24  chisel  handles                          " 

" 

18  hammer  handles                Central  High  School 

70  stools,  18  in.  high              Supply  Department 

96  dumb  bells 

H 

14  hammer  handles                     " 

tt 

48  calisthenics  rings                    " 

«« 

650  dowel  pins                  Manual-Training  High  School 

184  Indian  clubs                      Supply  Department 

12  dozen  chisel  handles              " 

tt 

40  stools                                      " 

tt 

Total 

$159.05      $315.15 

Equipment  of 

cabinet  shop 

12  benches — double. 

3  braces  —  ratchet,  8  in. 

8  bevels—  "T,"Sin. 

18  brushes  —  desk. 

80  bits  —  auger. 

42  chisels  —  J  in. 

1  bit  —  extension. 

88  chisels  —  \  in. 

2  bits  —  screw-driver. 

33  chisels  —  1  in. 

SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING 


225 


4  chisels  —  1 J  in. 

1  miter  box  and  saw. 

3  clamps  —  carriage. 

2  nail  sets. 

12  clamps  —  hand. 

1  oiler  —  tin. 

1  clamp  —  saw. 

2  planes  —  block. 

4  clamps  —  4  ft.  carpenter's. 

23  planes  —  jack,  iron,  14  in. 

4  clamps  —  4  ft.  wooden. 

1  plane  —  jointer. 

4  countersinks. 

10  planes — smoothing,  iron,  7  in. 

8  wing  dividers. 

1  pliers. 

2  drills  —  A  in. 

8  rasps  —  half  round. 

5  drills  —  I  in. 

6  rules  —  2  ft. 

5  drills  —  ■&  in. 

8  saws  —  back,  12  in. 

6  drills  —  |  in. 

4  saws  —  cross  cut. 

1  emery  wheel. 

2  saws  —  keyhole. 

12  files  — mill. 

10  saws  —  panel. 

6  gauges  —  marking. 

4  saws  —  rip. 

12  hammers  —  claw. 

1  saw  —  turning,  14  in. 

1  hatchet  —  shingle. 

1  saw  set. 

24  plane  bits  —  no.  5  jack. 

3  scrapers — cabinet. 

1  dowel  plate. 

8  screw-drivers. 

2  gluepots. 

1  spoke-shave. 

1  stone,  oil. 

1  square  —  framing. 

1  knife,  draw  —  8  in. 

8  squares  —  steel  no.  12. 

16  knives — chip  carving. 

1  square — try,  wood  stock,  12  in. 

24  mallets  —  wooden. 

22  squares  — try,  iron  stock,  8  in. 

Output  of  cabinet  shop 

Project 

Made  for                    Cof  ?'          Ma** 
material           value 

49  primary  tables  Supply  Department 

17  drawing  tables  Irving  School 

25  6  ft.  step  ladders  Supply  Department 

Repairing  1 4  stools     Printing  Shop,  Lathrop  School 
1  set  of  school  bank  fixtures  Ashland  School 
12  primary  tables 

Total  $49.03     $127.90 

1914  Summer  Class  constructed  one  two-room  school 
annex  building  (material  and  labor)  $2286.83  $2600.00 


The  classes  in  the  wood-turning  shop  average  21 
pupils,  and  in  the  cabinet  shop,  24.  They  average  14 
years  and  9  months  and  are  about  evenly  distributed 
between  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  grades. 


226  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Prevocational  Department, 
The  Albert  G.  Lane  Technical  High  School,  Chicago 

The  distinctive  feature  of  the  organization  of  prevo- 
cational work  in  Chicago,  as  was  noted  in  chapter  IV,1 
is  that  the  pupils  have  the  unusual  advantage  of  using 
the  same  buildings  and  much  of  the  same  equipment  as 
regularly  enrolled  pupils  of  the  technical  high  schools. 
In  the  Albert  G.  Lane  Technical  High  School,  nearly 
three  hundred  prevocational  boys  receive  instruction 
during  the  year.  They  rank  as  sixth,  seventh,  and 
eighth  grade  pupils,  but  individuals  are  frequently  found 
in  one  or  more  of  the  regular  high-school  classes,  even 
before  they  complete  the  elementary-school  work,  as 
many  of  the  boys  do  eventually,  receiving  diplomas 
and  enrolling  as  high-school  students  in  all  their  subjects. 
The  plan  preeminently  encourages  individual  progress, 
which  makes  it  difficult  to  describe  in  detail  the  work  of 
the  whole  group.  This  is  true  of  the  shopwork  subjects, 
and,  if  one  were  to  set  forth  in  detail  the  remarkable 
opportunities  for  technical  training  open  to  these  pre- 
cational  classes,  it  would  be  necessary  to  give  a  com- 
plete inventory  of  the  equipment  of  all  the  shops.  Such 
an  inventory  will  not  be  given  here,  but  a  few  of  the 
exceptional  features  will  be  mentioned  as  indicative  of 
the  atmosphere  which  pervades  the  school  life  of  these 
boys. 

In  addition  to  the  usual  woodworking,  forge,  foun- 
dry, and  machine-shop  equipment  of  most  well-planned 

1  Prevocational  classes  are  cared  for  in  the  four  technical  high 
schools  for  boys  and  in  the  Lucy  Flower  Technical  High  School  for 
girls.  In  addition  to  this  there  are  classes  of  a  somewhat  similar  nature 
in  sixteen  of  the  elementary  schools  of  Chicago. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  227 

technical  high  schools,  the  Lane  Technical  High  School 
has  an  elaborate  printing-plant,  including  a  number  4 
cylinder  press,  two  linotype  machines,  four  monotype 
keyboards  and  two  monotype  casting-machines.  The 
electrical  shop  is  fitted  up  for  fairly  heavy  motor  work 
at  a  cost  of  $12,000.  In  addition  to  the  usual  forges, 
the  forge-shop  equipment  includes  a  4  H.P.  shears  and 
punch,  a  gas  forge,  and  a  500  pound  steam  hammer. 
The  woodworking  shop  is  liberally  supplied  with  planers, 
band  saws  and  circular  saws,  while  the  machine-shop 
equipment  is  especially  elaborate,  being  valued  at 
$60,000. 

;  It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  entire  equipment  can 
be  placed  unreservedly  at  the  disposal  of  the  prevoca- 
tional  classes,  and  that,  therefore,  the  problem  of  caring 
for  these  boys  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter.  On  the 
contrary,  the  hospitality  is  extended  to  the  prevoca- 
tional  boys  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Lane 
School  is  accommodating  double  the  number  of  pupils 
for  which  it  was  originally  planned.  For  example,  the 
electrical  shop  cares  for  fifty  pupils  at  a  time,  which  is 
twice  the  number  for  which  the  shop  was  equipped, 
while  the  machine  shop,  planned  for  seventy-two  boys, 
at  times  accommodates  as  many  as  one  hundred  and 
twenty.  This  crowded  condition  naturally  curtails  the 
advantages  accorded  the  pre  vocational  boys,  and  pre- 
cludes as  wide  a  range  in  the  choice  of  shops,  for  entire 
classes,  as  is  desirable.  But  even  with  these  handicaps 
the  shopwork  is  a  success,  as  is  attested  by  the  attend- 
ance and  attitude  of  the  pupils  themselves. 

The  majority  of  the  prevocational  boys  work  in  the 
forge  shop,  woodworking  room,  pattern-making  shop, 
machine  shop,  and  printing  department. 


228  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Brief  outlines  of  typical  courses  given  follow:  — 

Forging 

The  forge  work  includes  exercises  in  the  processes  of  forging 
wrought  iron  and  steel,  such  as:  drawing;  bending;  twisting; 
welding;  making  and  tempering  lathe  and  planer  tools  and 
chisels.  Some  work  is  given  also  in  ornamental  forging. 

Among  the  articles  made  are:  — 

Staples  and  "  S  "[hooks.  Fern  stands. 

Twisted  gate  hooks.  Shovels. 

Gate  hinges.  Tongs. 

Links/ring  and  hooks  for  chain.  "  Pushmobiles." 
Bicycle  stands. 

Woodworking 

Joinery  and  simple  cabinet-making,  involving  elementary 
tool  practice  and  resulting  in  such  articles  as:  — 

Stools.  Umbrella  stands. 

Tabarets.  Card  tables. 

Certain  articles  for  school  use  are  made  under  the  factory 
system  of  production,  which  involves  the  working  on  such  as- 
signments as  laying  out,  finishing,  assembling,  and  checking. 
Practical  experience  is  obtained  in  the  use  of  woodworking 
machines  and  labor-saving  devices.  This  results  in  a  working 
knowledge  of  shop  and  factory  practices. 

Articles  like  the  following  for  school  use  are  made  in  quanti- 
ties: 

Bench  hooks. 

Boxes  for  parting  sand. 

Oilstone  cases. 

In  correlation  with  the  wood-turning  shop  and  the  foundry, 
cooperative  class  work  is  done,  from  time  to  time,  upon  some 
small  scientific  project  like  a  model  for  an  aeroplane.  This 
work  ties  up  with  vital  out-of-school  interests  and  furnishes 
material  for  practical  problems  in  mechanics.  The  inventive 
faculties  of  individuals  find  an  outlet  for  expression  through 
informal  work  of  this  nature,  and  incentive  is  furnished  for 
practical  experiment. 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  229 

The  boys  in  the  woodworking  class  are  called  upon  to  make 
general  repairs  and  to  do  considerable  "handy  work"  of  a 
constructive  nature  around  the  building,  the  activities  of  this 
technical  high  school  providing  a  large  amount  of  varied  and 
valuable  work  of  this  character. 

Pattern-making 

The  course  in  pattern-making,  while  planned  to  teach  the 
principles  of  the  making  of  wood  patterns  for  castings,  is  cor- 
related with  the  work  in  the  machine  and  electrical  shops  in 
such  a  way  that  the  pupils,  while  making  patterns  for  parts, 
learn  considerable  about  the  mechanical  principles  involved  in 
the  completed  article. 

Work  is  done  on  such  articles  as:  — 

Vacuum  cleaner.  Electric  lamp. 

Electric  blue-printer.  Rheostat. 

Motor  headstock  lathe.  Tuning  coil. 

Gas  engine.  Telegraph  sounding  coil. 

Shocking  coil.  Bench  lathe. 

Galvanometer  block. 

Machine-shop  practice 

Work  on  drill  presses,  planers,  lathes,  milling  machines  and 
boring  machines. 

Some  of  the  minor  projects  made  are:  — 

Hammer.  Marking  gauge. 

Depth  gauge.  Spirit  level. 

The  principal  work  of  the  shop  centers  around  the  making 
of  the  following  articles :  — 
Woodworking  vises.  Jack  screws.  Bench  lathes. 

Printing 

Elementary  composition. 
Imposition. 

Make-ready  on  Gordon  press. 

Make-ready  and  feeding  on  Gordon  press  and  cylinder 
press. 

Simple  forms  of  binding. 


230  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Prevocational  pupils  work  in  cooperation  with  the 
high- school  students  on  such  jobs  as  the  following:  — 

Announcements,  posters,  programs  and  tickets  for 

Athletic  events. 

Musical  and  dramatic  entertainments. 

Vocational  Education  Association  of  the  Middle  West. 

Educational  material  for  neighboring  schools. 
Letter-heads,  office  blanks,  and  educational  material  for 
the  Lane  School. 
Year-book. 

Monthly  magazine  (Tech  Prep.). 
Daily  paper,  morning  and  evening  edition. 

As  stated  before,  the  conspicuous  advantage  of  the 
Chicago  plan  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  boys  may  progress 
as  individuals  and  quite  independently  of  the  require- 
ments usually  demanded  for  promotion  by  classes.  In 
the  machine  shop,  which  is  ordinarily  reserved  for  third- 
year  high-school  pupils,  prevocational  boys  are  working 
successfully  with  the  high-school  students.  Several  are 
being  cared  for  in  the  freehand  drawing  department  and 
are  doing  work  which  compares  favorably  with  that  of 
the  more  advanced  students.  In  the  electrical  depart- 
ment the  wireless  operator  is  a  former  prevocational 
boy  who  entered  the  fourth-year  electrical  course  while 
still  in  the  prevocational  department.  He  is  now  devot- 
ing most  of  his  time  to  wireless  work  and  intends  to 
adopt  it  as  a  profession  later. 

Regarding  the  progress  of  the  pupils  as  a  whole,  it  is 
with  satisfaction  that  the  teachers  and  the  parents  of 
these  boys  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  it  is  eminently 
satisfactory,  due,  they  believe,  largely  to  the  association 
of  the  pupils  with  the  high-school  spirit,  activities,  and 
ideals.  They  seem  to  lose  their  identities  as  "failures," 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  231 

and  the  high  school  becomes  a  real  goal,  which,  they 
are  convinced,  is  possible  of  attainment  because  of  the 
tangible  opportunities  which  it  daily  presents. 

DRAWING 

In  common  with  much  of  the  other  school  work,  draw- 
ing should  be  taught  to  prevocational  classes  with  full 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  pupils  have  had  previous 
instruction  in  the  subject  for  a  period  of  six  or  seven 
years.  If  such  instruction  has  developed  or  revealed 
marked  ability  in  graphic  expression,  some  arrangement 
should  be  made,  if  possible,  to  give  special  attention  to 
the  individual,  preferably  in  some  good  high-school 
class  or  classes  in  drawing  and  design.  Such  cases,  how- 
ever, will  be  rare,  and  the  principle  of  arranging  the 
prevocational  course  in  drawing  will  be  relatively  simple 
and  may  be  stated  as  follows.^  The  work  in  drawing 
should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  it  will  contribute  directly 
to  the  pupil's  ability  to  understand  his  shopwork  better 
and  to  do  it  more  intelligently.  In  other  words,  formal 
instruction  in  drawing  along  the  traditional  lines  of 
representation,  construction,  design,  color,  and  art  ap- 
preciation must  be  abandoned  for  something  more  in- 
tensive and  more  immediately  applicable,  and  the 
particular  form  of  the  drawing  should  be  determined 
primarily  by  the  kind  of  shopwork  in  which  the  pupil 
is  engaged. 

A  class  working  in  the  printing-shop  or  studying  sign- 
painting  should  have  the  kind  of  drawing  which  deals 
with  design  in  the  flat  or  in  two  dimensions  mainly. 
Such  drawing  would  include  the  study  of  spacing  for 
printing  in  either  book,  job,  or  poster  work,  freehand 
layouts,  the  form,  proportion,  and  actual  measure- 


232  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

ments  of  letters,  and  color  as  applied  to  the  selection  of 
papers  and  inks.  Relatively  little  attention  should  be 
given  to  work  in  perspective  or  in  constructive  draw- 
ing, except  such  geometrical  work  as  will  help  the  pupil 
in  designing  and  laying  out  pages,  decorative  borders 
and  job  work  generally. 

For  the  machine-shop  class  little  attention  need  be 
given  to  design  and  color,  but  emphasis  should  be  laid 
on  the  making  and  reading  of  working  drawings.  Such 
work  should  include  much  freehand  sketching  of  details 
both  in  perspective  and  in  orthographic  projection,  in- 
volving three-dimension  objects.  The  putting  on  of 
dimensions  is  extremely  important,  as  is  also  the  study 
of  such  geometric  drawing  as  will  help  the  pupil  to  be 
accurate  in  his  work  and  to  understand  more  clearly 
the  elementary  principles  of  construction  and  the  mech- 
anism of  the  machine  tools  which  he  uses. 

A  class  in  sheet-metal  working  should  be  given  the 
elements  of  descriptive  geometry,  intersection  of  solids 
and  the  development  of  surfaces,  while  one  in  electrical 
wiring,  carpentry,  or  plumbing  should  have,  among 
other  things,  the  making  and  reading  of  house  plans  or 
such  phases  of  architectural  drawing  as  will  relate  most 
closely  to  the  industrial  work  in  which  the  pupils  are 
engaged. 

In  all  these  forms  of  drawing,  however,  both  freehand 
and  mechanical  work  should  be  done,  and  should  be 
combined.  It  is  never  desirable  to  confine  the  work  to 
any  one  line,  such  as  is  followed,  for  example,  in  the 
traditional  course  in  "mechanical  drawing,"  where  a 
line  is  never  drawn  without  mechanical  aid,  or  the  typ- 
ical course  in  "freehand"  drawing,  where  it  is  some- 
times considered  a  technical  error  to  draw  anything 


SHOPWORK  AND  DRAWING  233 

"accurately."  The  two  should  go  hand  in  hand,  and 
much  freehand  sketching  of  working  drawings  should 
supplement  the  mechanical  work.  If  mechanical  work 
only  is  done,  too  little  progress  can  be  made  because 
such  work  consumes  an  extravagant  amount  of  time. 

Above  all,  it  should  be  remembered,  and  should  be 
made  perfectly  clear  to  the  pupils,  that  drawing  is  the 
language  of  industry  and  that  the  way  to  learn  a  lan- 
guage is  to  use  it.  Therefore  diagrammatic  drawing 
should  be  used  constantly  by  all  teachers,  especially  in 
dealing  with  anything  related  to  the  shop  work.  It  should 
never  be  overlooked  that  the  ability  to  employ  graphic 
expression  is  a  most  important  asset  to  any  industrial 
worker. 


IN  CONCLUSION 

After  all,  the  criterion  by  which  any  school  will  stand 
approved  is  the  esteem  in  which  it  is  held  by  those  who, 
as  students,  come  under  its  influence. 

The  prevocational  school  is  a  new  structure,  standing 
upon  its  own  foundations  and  unbuttressed  by  tradi- 
tion. Its  stability  will  be  assured  when  those  now  re- 
ceiving and  appreciating  its  benefits  have  gone  out  into 
the  world  and  have  borne  testimony  to  its  excellence. 

It  is  now  only  just  rising  from  its  foundations,  and  the 
children,  who  are  at  once  its  occupants  and  its  builders, 
are  those  upon  whose  judgment,  at  the  present  time,  we 
can  most  safely  rely.  The  quotations  on  the  following 
pages,  taken  from  the  issues  of  a  prevocational  journal, 
indicate  something  of  the  spirit  of  these  schools  and  also 
show  the  regard  in  which  their  various  activities  are  held 
by  the  pupils  themselves. 

The  hopeful  assurance  of  the  youthful  contributors 
to  The  Worhnaster  is  one  of  many  reasons  for  the  con- 
fidence with  which  the  authors  of  this  book  send  it  forth 
to  work  for  the  improvement  of  educational  oppor- 
tunities for  children  everywhere. 


Pjm.g. 


.No.  e  i^m 


THE 

WOKKMASTER 


IN  THE  INTEREST  OF  THE 

PREVOCATIONAL  CENTERS  OF 

THE  BOSTON  PUBLIC 

SCHOOLS 


FEBRUARY,  1915 


PUBLISHED  BY 

PREVOCATIONAL  CLASS  IN  PRINTING 

LEWIS  SCHOOL,  ROXBURY 


&§fi  B 


236  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

We  have  begun  to  run  the  three-horse  power  electric  saw. 
We  all  must  have  a  permit  to  run  it.  This  permit  is  signed  by 
our  parents,  so  that  if  there  is  any  accident,  through  careless- 
ness on  our  part,  the  instructor  is  not  held  responsible.  If 
orders  are  disobeyed,  the  permit  is  taken  away.  This  is  a  very 
good  rule  for  our  benefit. 

The  sheet-metal  work  has  begun  in  the  Sherwin  School, 
and  has  proved  a  great  success. 

Many  useful  things  have  already  been  made  by  the  pupils 
of  the  Prevocational  Class,  such  as  doughnut  cutters,  boxes, 
funnels,  etc. 

We  were  greatly  interested  to  find  how  different  the  stretch- 
out of  the  models  looked  from  what  they  did  when  they  were 
made  up. 

It  is  surprising  to  learn  the  cost  of  an  article;  for  instance, 
the  doughnut  cutter,  which  one  can  buy  at  the  store  for  ten 
cents,  costs  about  one  third  of  a  cent  for  material. 

Morris  Cohen  did  not  come  back  this  year.  He  is  working 
in  a  printing-office  in  Boston. 

Most  of  the  boys  of  last  year's  class  are  again  at  school. 
Six  have  entered  the  Mechanic  Arts  High.  Martin  Taylor, 
captain  of  the  ball  team,  has  entered  the  sheet-metal  class  at 
the  Boys'  Industrial  School.  Stanley  Muir  has  been  employed 
during  the  vacation  at  the  office  of  the  United  Shoe  Machinery 
Company,  and  we  were  pleased  to  know  that  through  his 
strict  attention  to  business,  he  received  weekly  a  dollar  more 
than  is  usually  paid  for  such  work.  He  has  entered  the  Com- 
mercial High  and  we  hope  he  will  continue  to  make  good.., 

A  well-known  drawing  teacher,  Miss  Cleaves  by  name, 
addressed  the  boys  on  the  subject  of  making  explanations 
more  plainly  by  drawing. 

She  also  told  us  a  true  proverb  which  may  teach  us  not  to 
try  to  know  everything.  It  was,  "It  takes  the  whole  world 
to  know  everything."  Altogether  it  was  a  very  helpful  talk. 
Most  of  us  learned  a  good  deal  and  we  were  grateful  to  Miss 
Cleaves. 


IN  CONCLUSION  237 

One  day  last  week  the  class  went  with  Mr.  Olsen  to  the 
Gibby  Iron  Foundry  in  East  Boston. 

The  foundry  was  very  interesting,  indeed.  There  are  about 
30  or  40  molders,  and  they  were  molding  a  steam  boiler  front 
in  sand. 

Outside  in  the  yard  they  were  breaking  up  pig  iron  and 
mixing  it  with  scrap  iron  before  they  melted  it.  We  saw  them 
make  our  desk-iron  castings  that  we  finish  in  our  school  shop. 

The  sight  of  the  molten  iron  as  it  came  from  the  furnace  was 
most  wonderful  and  enjoyable. 

One  of  the  teachers  in  our  school  had  an  old  watering-pot 
which  she  thought  was  ready  for  the  ash-heap.  I  took  it  to  the 
shop-room  to  see  what  could  be  done  with  it.  I  found  holes, 
rust,  and  dents  in  the  bottom.  I  took  off  the  bottom,  put  on 
a  new  one,  hammered  the  dents  from  the  sides,  and  put  on  a 
coat  of  black  paint  which  made  it  look  like  a  new  one.  I  re- 
turned it  to  her  and  she  was  much  surprised  to  find  that  it  was 
her  old  watering-pot  which  she  did  not  recognize  at  first. 

On  Wednesday  afternoon,  October  29,  the  Sheet-Metal 
Class  of  the  Lyceum  Hall  Prevocational  Center  visited 
Walker  and  Pratt's  on  Union  Street. 

We  saw  some  men  making  furnace  pipes  and  furnace  tops 
in  cone  and  flat  shapes.  Others  were  making  ash-pans  to  slide 
into  the  bottom  of  stoves  to  catch  the  dropping  ashes.  There 
was  one  man  who  put  aside  all  his  work  to  show  us  how  they 
did  soldering.  Mr.  De  Lappe,  who  is  the  head  foreman, 
showed  us  all  these  things  and  many  other  things. 

The  work  these  men  do  is  a  great  deal  harder  and  heavier 
than  what  we  do  in  the  shop.  We  have  all  the  machines  they 
have  except  the  corrugating  machine. 

On  Friday  afternoon  all  the  prevocational  classes  of  Boston 
gathered  at  the  English  High  School  on  Montgomery  Street. 
We  saw  pictures  about  the  history  of  a  book,  both  old  and 
modern,  and  heard  a  lecture  by  Mr.  England,  the  shop  in- 
structor of  the  bookbinding  center  at  the  U.  S.  Grant  School. 
We  also  saw  pictures  of  the  Carborundum  Company  of  Niag- 
ara, New  York,  and  we  heard  a  talk  by  one  of  their  salesmen. 


238  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Our  teacher  thought  that  it  would  be  a  good  idea  if  we  could 
choose  our  own  foreman  for  the  week  and  one  boy  thought  of 
a  way  which  is  as  follows :  We  would  elect  a  committee  of  three 
(one  of  them  chairman)  and  their  duty  is  to  select  a  foreman 
each  week  and  if  he  does  not  do  his  duty  to  discharge  him.  We 
have  had  three  foremen  already  and  they  are  doing  their  duty 
as  well  as  it  can  be  done. 

We  are  making  800  angle  irons  for  the  wooden  boxes  that 
the  boys  in  Lyceum  Hall  are  making  for  the  supply  team. 

In  the  school  on  Wednesday  the  bells  were  ringing  feebly. 
Our  section  went  in  the  shop  on  Wednesday  afternoon.  While 
we  were  in  there  our  shop  teacher,  Mr.  Moriarty,  took  two 
boys  and  told  them  to  go  down  into  the  cellar  and  bring  up 
the  seven  batteries. 

The  boys  went  down  into  the  cellar  and  took  them  up  to 
the  shop.  Then  the  boys  took  all  the  carbons  out  of  the  bat- 
teries. Our  shop  teacher  called  us  over  and  said,  "That's  the 
way  that  crystals  form  on  the  carbons."  The  boys  took  their 
knives  and  scraped  the  crystals  off  and  put  new  salammoniac 
in  the  jars  and  new  water.  Then  the  boys  tested  them  by  put- 
ting a  bell  on  and  the  bell  rang.  Then  the  boys  took  them 
down  into  the  cellar,  and  put  them  where  they  got  them. 

The  causes  of  these  crystals  being  on  the  carbons  was  be- 
cause you  ring  the  bells  so  many  times  that  it  wears  out  the 
zinc. 

I  have  fifteen  books  of  my  own  at  home  that  I  have  bound. 
I  started  them  at  home  and  finished  them  up  in  school  in 
spare  time.  Nearly  every  boy  is  binding  books  for  himself. 
We  did  n't  have  any  reading  books,  so  we  sent  to  New  York 
for  some  books  and  we  paid  five  cents  apiece  for  them.  We 
sent  for  "Jean  Valjean,"  "The  Lives  of  Daniel  Webster  and 
Henry  Clay,"  and  "The  Gold  Bug."  It  did  n't  cost  us  any- 
thing to  bind  these  books,  but  if  we  bind  larger  books  of  our 
own  it  costs  us  about  five  cents  each. 

We  were  very  glad  this  morning  when  we  learned  that 
Victor  Baron  had  been  given  permission  by  Mr.  Crawford  to 
enter  the  Boston  Industrial  School  next  fall. 

We  think  he  will  make  a  success  because  he  is  a  good  worker. 


IN  CONCLUSION  239 

We  have  just  repaired  for  the  nurse's  room  in  our  school 
the  instrument  used  in  taking  the  heights  of  the  boys.  It  is 
composed  of  an  upright  about  six  feet  long  of  one-inch  brass 
tubing  which  is  marked  off  in  feet,  inches,  and  eighths.  This 
is  supported  by  being  set  into  tripod  formed  of  brass  tubing  of 
the  same  size.  The  part  we  had  to  repair  was  the  adjustable 
arm,  which  is  made  of  aluminum  with  a  hole  in  one  end  for  the 
upright  to  pass  through. 

Our  problem  was  to  bore  a  new  hole,  as  the  old  one  had 
broken  off.  As  we  were  without  a  one-inch  drill  and  our  cup 
punch  would  not  cut  it,  we  marked  with  our  wing  dividers  a 
circle  the  correct  size.  Then  with  a  hand  drill  we  bored  a  num- 
ber of  small  holes  just  as  close  as  possible  on  the  inside  edge  of 
the  circle.  This  being  done  we  cut  out  with  a  small  chisel  the 
metal  that  remained  between  the  holes.  Then  with  a  half- 
round  file  finished  the  remaining  part  so  that  it  would  just  fit 
over  the  tube. 

After  that  we  resoldered  the  old  adjustment  to  the  arm 
which  gave  us  the  problem  of  soldering  brass  to  aluminum. 
For  this  we  used  Nokorode  as  a  flux. 

The  damp  weather  taught  us  a  good  lesson,  which  is,  not 
to  scrape  the  solder  so  deep  when  finishing  up  articles  made  of 
tin,  because  they  are  sure  to  rust  when  you  expose  the  iron. 

Tin,  you  know,  or  what  we  call  tin,  is  iron  which  is  dipped 
into  tin,  which  gives  it  a  bright  coating.  The  temptation  to 
make  our  work  look  neat  is  very  great,  so  we  often  scrape  too 
closely;  but  the  best  way  is  simply  to  smooth  the  surface  of 
the  solder. 

During  the  month  of  April  we  have  made  eight  drip  pans 
of  zinc  9|  inches  square  for  the  Hyde  Park  High  School.  In 
return  we  are  to  receive  15  hammers  and  15  mallet  handles 
from  their  manual  training  department. 

One  of  the  graduates  of  our  class  of  June,  1913,  is  now  work- 
ing as  a  bookbinder  in  F.  J.  Barnard  &  Co.,  Inc.,  on  Federal 
Street.  He  was  a  good  worker  in  school  and  a  good  worker  in 
the  shop. 


240  PREVOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  work  we  have  done  the  first  half  of  the  year  is:  Re- 
bound 300  books  and  125  pamphlets,  750  Harvard  covers, 
2500  stenographers'  notebooks,  and  325  blocks  of  paper. 

Mr.  Brodhead,  the  head  of  the  prevocational  classes  of  Bos- 
ton, is  going  to  visit  Germany.  His  intention  is  to  learn  the 
custom  of  the  German  schools.  He  will  probably  stay  all  sum- 
mer, and  we  have  printed  cards  in  German  with  his  name 
and  Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A.,  and  " Studiendirektor  fur  Hand- 
fertigkeitsunterricht"  on  them.  He  is  going  to  use  the  cards 
in  Germany. 

The  boys  of  the  Lewis  School  are  beginning  to  form  their 
baseball  teams  for  the  coming  season.  We  will  print  the  sched- 
ules. 

We  received  a  very  fine  letter  from  Mr.  Morse,  who  is  the 
Manual  Arts  Instructor  in  the  West  Roxbury  High  School, 
thanking  us  for  the  work  we  did  for  him  on  his  staining  table. 
This  was  very  kind  of  him  and  we  appreciate  it  very  much. 

We  have  lately  read  in  the  papers  that  the  stores  have  taken 
account  of  stock,  so  we  decided  to  do  the  same  in  the  Eliot 
School.  We  wished  to  find  out  how  many  orders  had  been 
filled;  also  how  much  work  we  had  on  hand. 

The  following  orders  were  shipped  before  March  1:  500 
basket  bottoms,  assorted  sizes  from  4  in.  by  6  in.  to  11  in.; 
78  straw-board  photo-frames  and  1000  splints  for  the  special 
classes;  400  pieces  shellacked  news-board,  19  in.  by  13  in.,  to 
the  clay  modeling  department;  26  equipment  trays  and  72 
threaded  dowels  with  72  wooden  nuts  tapped  to  match,  to  the 
lower  grade  normal  training  classes;  5  boxes  with  hinged 
covers  and  48  square  plinths,  4  in.  by  1  in.,  to  the  drawing  de- 
partment; 100  topographic  cloth-mounted  maps  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Normal  School;  12  drawer  runners  to  the  Quincy 
Prevocational  Center;  1000  Harvard  covers  to  the  supply 
rooms;  29  trays  to  hold  bench  plans  and  47  boxes  to  hold  plane 
irons  for  our  center. 

We  have  the  following  orders  to  fill  before  school  closes: 
96  basket  bottoms,  12  photo-frames,  4000  splints,  and  150 


IN  CONCLUSION  241 

alphabet  boxes  for  the  special  classes;  3  modeling  trays  and 
700  busy-wprk  boxes  for  the  lower  grade  manual  training 
classes;  4  boxes  with  hinge  covers,  to  hold  type  solids,  and 
5  sets  of  stained  wood  samples  for  the  drawing  department; 
61  maple  tool-racks  for  the  manual  training  classes;  1  lantern 
slide  carrying  case  for  Mr.  Emerson. 

Mr.  Smith,  our  master,  has  invited  our  boys  over  to  the 
hall  to  tell  the  boys  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  grades  in 
the  Mather  School  about  the  work  in  the  Lyceum  Hall  Pre- 
vocational  Center. 

We  boys  like  this  school  better  than  the  regular  schools  and 
shall  be  glad  to  tell  the  boys  all  we  know  about  the  work. 

We  have  so  far  made  in  the  shop  for  the  month  of  March 
the  following  articles:  Ink  fillers;  garbage  pails;  waste  cans; 
a  sign  which  reads,  "Lyceum  Hall  Prevocational  Center"; 
measures  ranging  from  a  gill  to  a  gallon. 

We  shall  be  pleased  to  fill  any  orders  for  any  schools. 

We  have  sharpened  and  repaired  scissors,  pliers,  and  shears 
for  the  Girls'  Trade  School,  and  in  return  they  are  making  us 
some  aprons  for  the  shop. 

The  other  day  Mr.  Dee,  our  shop  instructor,  took  five  of 
the  boys  from  the  eighth  grade  down  to  the  Practical  Arts 
High  School  (girls)  to  fix  up  a  little  printing-shop  for  them. 

We  fixed  the  press  up  and  left  it  ready  for  use. 

The  same  afternoon  section  C  went  to  the  Agassiz  Museum 
in  Cambridge  with  Miss  Neely. 

The  boys  did  not  know  that  any  one  building  could  have 
so  many  different  objects  of  interest  in  it.  We  want  to  go 
there  again  sometime,  and  we  would  like  to  see  the  exhibition 
in  the  Peabody  Museum  the  same  day. 


INDEX 


Age  of  prevocational  pupils,  206, 
207,  209,  212,  213,  225. 

Albert  G.  Lane  Technical  High 
School,  Chicago,  Illinois,  23, 59, 
226. 

American  Association  for  Labor 
Legislation,  93. 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
107,  123. 

Anatomy,  86. 

Arithmetic,  account  keeping,  189; 
drill  tables,  176, 220;  purpose  of, 
73;  problems  in  machine-shop 
practice,  186;  in  printing,  188; 
in  science,  188;  in  woodwork- 
ing, 185. 

Ayres,  Dr.  Leonard  P.,  40. 

Biology,  137. 

Bobbitt,  Professor  J.  F.,  104. 

Bookbinding,  217. 

Bookkeeping,  189. 

Boston,  Evening  Industrial  School, 
22;  Industrial  School  for  Boys, 
22;  prevocational  centers,  21, 
202;  prevocational  circular,  45; 
Trade  School  for  Girls,  22. 

Business  English,  147. 

Cabinetmaking,  225. 

Carlton,  Professor  Frank  Tracy, 

109,  111. 
Characteristics  of   prevocational 

boys,  4,  10,  58. 
Chemistry,  137. 
Chicago,  technical  high  schools, 

23;  prevocational  circular,  47. 
Child  labor,  88. 

Civics  for  the  worker,  111,  124. 
Classes,  size  of,  79,  206,  207,  209, 

212,  213,  225. 
Class  organization,  56. 


Class  talks,  93,  95. 

Colgate  and  Company,  90. 

Conclusion,  234. 

Concrete  in  education,  the,  72. 

Continuation  schools,  lesson  from, 
34. 

Correlation,  75;  drawing  and 
shop  work,  231;  English  and 
other  studies,  161 ;  mathematics, 
science  and  shop  work,  184;  sci- 
ence and  drawing,  140;  shop- 
work  and  bookwork,  9,  57,  74. 

Cost,  per  capita,  79. 

Course  of  study,  prevocational, 
4, 48, 56. 

Dana,  John  Cotton,  154. 

Death-rate  of  children,  100. 

Definitions,  25,  28. 

Departmental  plan,  55. 

Devine,  Dr.  Edward  T.,  96. 

Douglas  Commission,  20. 

Drawing,  231;  freehand  sketch- 
ing, 232;  mechanical,  232. 

Drill,  74;  in  arithmetic,  174, 
tables,  176,  220. 

Economic  history,  107,  108. 

Economics  for  industrial  schools, 
107. 

Electrical  work,  211. 

Employers'  Associations,  124. 

English  (see  also  Reading),  oral 
and  written,  165. 

Equipment  of  shops,  195;  book- 
binding, 215;  cabinet  shop,  224; 
electrical  work,  209;  forging, 
198;  Lane  School,  226;  machine 
shop,  203;  metal  working,  199; 
printing,213;  sheet  metal  work, 
207;  wood  turning,  222;  wood- 
working, 197,  206. 


244 


INDEX 


Fatigue,  90. 
Feudalism,  117. 
Forging,  198. 

Freedom  through  craftsmanship, 
118. 

Goldmark,  Josephine,  90. 
Graded  system,  the,  39,  53. 
Grammar,  149,  168. 
Greatest  Common  Divisor,  182. 
Guilds,  119,  123. 

Health  of  the  worker,   84,   93, 

95. 
Heat,  143. 

Hendrick,  Burton  J.,  101. 
High  schools,  11,  23,  226. 
History  references,  132. 
Home  period,  118. 
Home  study,  56. 

Indiana,  28;  industrial  education 
law,  interpretation  of,  30. 

Industrial  education,  3,  16. 

Industrial  history,  109. 

Industrial  hygiene,  108. 

Industrial  Workers  of  the  World, 
124. 

Job  ticket,  219. 

Kansas  City,  Missouri,  221. 
Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  124. 
Knights  of  Labor,  124. 

Labor  unions,  121. 

Lathrop  School,  Kansas  City, 
Missouri,  221. 

Lead  poisoning,  95. 

Least  Common  Multiple,  182. 

Lecture  method,  93,  96,  130. 

Library,  164. 

Louisville  Prevocational  School, 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  52,  212. 

Lyceum  Hall  Prevocational  Cen- 
ter, Boston,  206. 

Machine-shop  work,  204. 
Manhattan     Trade     School   for 
Girls,  87,  107. 


Mann,  Horace,  104. 

Manual  training,  20,  76,  194. 

Marshall,  Florence  M.,  87. 

Massachusetts,  Industrial  Edu- 
cation Law,  26;  definitions,  29; 
Douglas  Commission,  20;  les- 
sons from,  18. 

Mathematics.    See  Arithmetic. 

McLaughlin,  Professor  Andrew 
Cunningham,  107. 

Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company,  90. 

Milwaukee  School  of  Trades, 
197. 

National  Safety  Council,  89. 

National  Society  for  the  Promo- 
tion of  Industrial  Education, 
41. 

Notebooks,  131,138, 139, 142, 166; 
loose-leaf  system,  78. 

Organized  labor,  111,  120. 

Parental  responsibility,  13,  38. 
Pattern-making,  229. 
Penmanship,  166. 
Percentage,  182. 
Physics,  137. 
Physiology,  86. 

Population,  significance  of  den- 
sity of,  27. 
Printing,  216,  229. 
Public  health,  96. 
Pure  Food  Law,  101.    \ 

Quincy  Prevocational  Center, 
Boston,  203. 

Readers,  supplementary,  159. 

Reading,  for  entertainment,  153, 
169;  for  information,  161 ;  habit, 
150,  154;  material,  152,  156, 
160;  oral,  165,  168. 

Retardation,  causes  for,  37,  63. 

Richards,  Ellen  H.,  191. 

Richmond,  Virginia,  Survey,  41. 

Ritchie,  John  W.,  85. 

Robinson,  Professor  James  Har- 
vey, 104. 


INDEX 


245 


"Safety  first"  movement,  88,  92, 
127. 

Sandiford,  Dr.  Peter,  86. 

Sanitol  Education  Company,  89. 

School  day,  length  of,  56. 

Seattle,  prevocational  circular,  48. 

Secondary  education,  11. 

Selection  of  prevocational  chil- 
dren, 43,  52. 

Sheet-metal  work,  208. 

Shop  work,  76;  examples  of  pre- 
vocational, 201;  nature  of,  194; 
time  allotted  to,  195. 

Slavery,  110,  115,  119. 

Smoke  laws,  125. 

Spelling,  166. 

State  aid,  22,  26,  32. 

Subject-matter,  70;  sources  of, 
77. 

Subnormals,  10,  37. 

Survey,  36,  41;  educational,  37, 
39,  53,  55;  industrial,  40;  so- 
cial, 38. 

Teachers,  characteristics  of,  55, 
80,  82;  characteristics  of  Eng- 
lish, 161;  of  shopwork,  56,  199; 
selection  and  training  of  shop- 
work,  200;  selection  of,  55. 

Terrill,  Bertha  M.,  190. 


Textbooks,  76;  history,  105,  112; 

hygiene,  91;  mathematics,  180; 

science,  138. 
Time,  distribution  of,  45,  49,  78, 

222. 
Tolman,  William  H.,  85. 
Trade  material  for  reading,  152, 

158. 
Trade  unions,  121. 

Unions,  labor,  121;  trade,  121. 
United  States  history,  111. 
University  of  Chicago,  the,  59. 
Utility,    of    arithmetic,    180;    of 

books,  163,  165;  of  physiology, 

84;  of  science,  180. 

Vocational  education,  3. 

Wage  slavery,  120. 

Wisconsin's  continuation  schools, 

34. 
Wood-turning,  223. 
Woodworking,  206,  228. 
Word  study,  166. 
Work,  in  praise  of,  170. 
"Workmaster,     The,"     extracts 

from,  235. 
Workmen's  Compensation  Law, 

88,  92,  102,  128. 


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